Doublespeak by Cindy Cheng

Vessel/Sculpture
Enamel, fine silver, copper
2.5 in x 3.5 in x 3.5 in

I am an artist living and working in Baltimore, MD. I earned my MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art's Mount Royal program and pursued my undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke College. Before fully committing to my studio practice, I was a full-time faculty member in the Drawing Department at MICA.
With a background in sculpture and drawing, I bring an impulse towards object and image into my metal and jewelry work. In fact, my practice is characterized by a diversity of impulses – to investigate darker themes through absurd imagery, to dive into visual and tactile beauty through an exploration of materials, to set up complex technical challenges in the studio and search for the processes that solve the puzzle. I have focused on techniques that are conduits for these needs – cloisonné enamel provides space to think about imagery, narrative, and color; lapidary has instilled a respect for the tactile beauty and potential of the raw objects we work with; wax-working and casting is a bridge between my old sculptural practice and my new small-metals work, enabling more fluidity in how metal takes form. Ultimately, I seek to distill a maximalist energy - whether driven by narrative or a focused manipulation of materials - into intimate and strange objects.