Summer break from seriousness… Earrings are a key part of my personal style. I love finding jewelry with unique looks and materials when I travel. My ear bob souvenirs fit well in my travel bag. They aren’t fragile as pottery or as big as a painting. Earrings from open-air markets and small shops in Spain and Latin America are my favorites. The handmade quality of each is affirming; love brought forth these small art objects. My signature earrings reflect my personality not any prescribed style. Most are a bit dangly and made of natural materials: silver, semi-precious stones, wood, sometimes gold.

I look to the nonagenarian (97 year old) fashion queen, Iris Apfel, who believes in ornament as a creative extension of oneself. In her bio-pic she expressed what my heart has long said. In my words: I am a canvas I get to paint with color and decorate each day. Each new day is an act of creation in which I follow my heart.

Today I am wearing an Argentinean artist’s tribute to the drawings of an ancient Patagonian native culture. I love the joyful running of the bird glyph. I found them in a small shop in Calafate southern Argentina after seeing the Perito Moreno Glacier. In the days to come, more about the earring souvenirs pictured on the acrylic rack above (present from my dad).

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