Ippolita Jewels of Connectivity

Carnelian sands stand swept up by you. Mother of pearlescent nature I aspire to be the expression of the free will you see. A lapis sky dusts a turquoise haze softening the San Jacinto’s steep escape. An answer to my aesthetic prayers bloomed like a desert flower feeling. Adorned in Ippolita Polished Rock Candy, primordial mass flecked with Florentine heritage slice delicately into compositional new beings. A wandering galaxy of light, Desert X opens up its art evoking emotion to me. Emboldened by context, site-specificity is the point of departure for the presentation of nineteen installations and performances stretching across the Coachella Valley and beyond to the Salton Sea, further one can only get the full experience by crossing the U.S.— Mexico Border into Baha for Pia Camil’s twin iteration of Lover’s Rainbow. Through an inclusively diverse program of artists working in a variety of media, Desert X 2019 reverberates our current societal conditions while prompting us to elevate spiritually.

Sterling Ruby’s fluorescence glows unconditionally, a symbol for how to freestyle my instinctive desire to create. I start with jewelry as a constellatory object that carries great sentiment to me. Echoing the collage-like effect of Sterling Ruby’s SPECTER in the desert, Ippolita’s mother-of-pearl cutouts appear naturally a part of the illusion. To express the emotional journey of a day’s pilgrimage through dress, the highly charged art encounter and the void spaces inherent in my journey to the next, a layered palate of handmade denim knitwear and glossy shades of scarlet is set off by bare skin. Somewhere over the border, Pia Camil’s twin rainbow roots give, and in harmony, receive. Ippolita’s multicolor jewel drops, spark the desire to extend this arc of creation, to reflect light back to the one who brought it out in me.

A gift of jewelry in my family is an everlasting and activating symbol of connectivity. As I return to the desert where my journey began originally, I think of my mom who has supported my every creative pursuit since birth wholeheartedly not withholding a relentless quest to get my ear’s pierced at age 3. This Mother’s Day the perfect way to convey the depths of my appreciation for those shared moments where she has honored my determination would be a gift for her, and if I’m lucky for me, from Neiman Marcus of Ippolita Polished Rock Candy.