artist statement
The center of this cuff represents the trees that withstood the storm and remained upright, their silhouettes visible thru the mist that lingered the next morning. The cast branches represent the trees that didn’t make it.
The chainsaw links represent the massive amount of chain sawing done during the clean-up of the trees downed by Fiona. The birch bark is from one of the hundreds of trees we lost around the studio during the storm.
The cuttlefish cast silver represents the wind and waves that occurred during Fiona and the copper represents the root balls of the uprooted trees. The Hawthorn thorns represent the trees that were blown down.
The cuttlefish cast silver represents the wind and waves that occurred during Fiona and the rusted steel represents the heavily eroded red cliffs of PEI.
artist biography
Jim Aquilani is a native of San Diego who now calls Prince Edward Island home. At a young age, Jim’s parents introduced him to many different artistic disciplines and shared their strong connection with nature. This early introduction to the art world made an impact and sent Jim on his own journey of self-expression.
As he got older Jim, gravitated towards architecture and graphic design and remained passionate about the natural world. While in high school he attended Saturday courses for jewellery making at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Learning the basics of metalsmithing to create pieces of jewellery opened a world of possibilities. By combining his love of nature and its organic forms, with the more linear elements of architecture and graphic design, the possibilities for self-expression were endless. Jim went on to enroll at Tyler and completed two semesters after which he has been solely self-taught.
After leaving Tyler Jim spent the next twenty years away from the bench working at various jobs and saving to someday afford his own studio. During that time, he continued to diligently sketch his design ideas. In 2007 he went on to build a studio space on Prince Edward Island and began his artistic journey anew.
Jim now creates wearable works of art with precious and semi-precious metals and age-old metalsmithing techniques, often combined with new and unusual processes and materials. His journey of self-expression is unwavering.
