Lucas Pointon
Sizing and Price Examples:
Series of Crown Rings (Jewelry)
Material – 18k Yellow Gold
Technique – Fabrication and Granulation Technique
Price – $3,000 – $4,000
Sizing and Price Examples:
Series of Reliquary Rings (Jewelry)
Material – Sterling Silver, Bronze
Technique – Fabrication, Stone Setting
Price – $500 – $1,000
Artist Bio:
Lucas Pointon currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin, teaching metals as an adjunct-lecturer for the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He teaches both beginning and advanced jewelry/metalsmithing courses and is a professional goldsmith managing a local company’s workshop. He graduated from Bowling Green State University in 2014 with a BFA, and in 2020, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with his MFA in metalsmithing/jewelry design. Many of his pieces formally reference Medieval reliquaries, which are elaborate and precious metal containers that hold the relic of a saint, such as a fragment of bone or an article of cloth. Lucas has utilized this format as a way to explore the deep spiritual connection he feels towards the outdoors and his participation within it.
Artist Statement:
My work explores issues of life and death, and issues related to my deep personal engagement with the natural world, including landscape and wildlife. Many of my pieces formally reference Medieval reliquaries, which are elaborate and precious metal containers that hold the relic of a saint, such as a fragment of bone or an article of cloth. Reliquaries provided for a visceral religious experience that melded life and death into one mysterious indivisible whole. These historical reliquaries represent an attitude towards death that is interesting to me, and a belief in the cycles of life and death as part of the process of renewal and veneration. I have utilized this format as a way to explore the deeply spiritual connection I feel towards the outdoors and my participation within it. The act of making a reliquary with the precise and time-consuming processes of the metalsmith allows me to honor and elevate the practices of hunting and fishing that are part of my life, and to serve as a reminder of the moral compass that informs these activities.
I am both an artist and an avid outdoorsman and my artworks memorialize my appreciation for those outdoor activities. I hunt with a bow that I have made and I fish with a handmade flyreel. In a way, these two practices are deeply connected. Above the handle on the bow there lies a painted banner inscribed with the phrase, “such as we are you shall be” – a medieval statement that refers to the inevitability of death, both for the hunted and the hunter. The phrase faces me as I hold the bow, aiming, and reminds me to focus on the responsibility of taking a life. This transcendental exchange is important to me, and has served as an ethical marker that informs other areas of my life. I become part of the greater cycles of life and death, and I understand my role within the natural world.