Lydia E. Martin

Lydia Elsa Martin is a Western New York jeweler based in Rochester. She received her MFA from SUNY New Paltz in 2016, and her BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she previously worked as a professor and studio resident.[1] Come Fall 2019, Martin will be relocating to Baltimore, MD, where she will serve as a teacher and 3-month resident (2020) at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. 

Her work is primarily based on process, skill and intention, something she elaborates on further in her artist statement:

“My jewelry is a record of intentions and consequences, of what happens when skill meets material. Manipulating silver into enlarged, exaggerated traditional forms, I seek to bring focus to small moments that might otherwise be overlooked. Applying external, physical pressure creates distortions that reveal the limits of materiality, while skillful reconstruction seeks to make whole what was fragmented.” [2]

Martin has exhibited national and internationally, featured in shows in Rochester, New York City, California, Switzerland, the Netherlands, London and Germany, among other places.[3]

For more information on Lydia Martin and her work, visit her website: http://lydiaelsamartin.com/.