Joy Bonfield Colombara, Gaze

'To ‘gaze’ is to steadily and intently look at something with admiration, especially in surprize or in thought.  

How do we ‘look’ with love? If we are conscientiously sensitive to receiving all the wonder around us, then we notice the tiny purple flowers. ‘Looking’ is not just with one’s eyes. It is with your heart and head. How we are emotionally affected makes us look in different ways.  

In literary theory, the ‘gaze’ is a particular perspective considered as embodying certain aspects of the relationship between observer and the observed – and refers to a gender, i.e. ‘the male gaze’. However, this piece is a section of an imagined portrait, not gender specific, nor referential to any era or character, it is mysterious and unknown. It’s two eyes, looking out at the world. The area of the iris and pupils are set with natural emeralds in yellow gold, a noble metal which has been used notably in fine Jewellery and sacred objects. To gaze can also be to gaze out to space, to the stars, to dream and to be in a state of flux. 

As an artist, I work with my eyes and hands, but I also employ all my senses. Touch I believe is so imperative, and is the first sense we learn with. Yet visual culture has become the paramount way we are bombarded with in media in the western world. We touch our screens gazing into a digital portal on a daily basis, more than we touch each-other or the natural and material world we are in.  

For me a Jewel is truly beautiful in how it feels, not only how it looks.'