Matt Miranda

 

Originally from the Los Angeles area, Matt has lived in Santa Fe since around 2009, although he feels like since being here, “my spirit has been here all my life.” He has New Mexico roots; his grandfather was from Deming and his grandmother from Acoma. His Mom was an elementary school art teacher, and even though he feels he can make “the best stick figures around”, he feels like he missed out on having that art background, so he started making some jewelry pieces for himself. “Someone saw them and suggested I put them in a gallery and things have taken off from there.”

 

He has a BS in Electrical Construction and Maintenance and has worked as an electrician by trade, but only dabbles in that occasionally now. “Electrical work is very black and white. Art is not like that. In all kinds of art, the best work comes from within; you can see the love in them.”

 

He cites Frank Patania as a major influence; “He wasn’t afraid to go big, chunky. He made statement pieces and used top quality stones.”

Very evident in all of Matt’s work is his love of turquoise. Although he won’t disclose his sources, he is always on the lookout for examples of turquoise that you see and say, “I’ve never seen a stone like that before.”

 

“A stone will speak to me on numerous levels: size, depth of color, translucency and matrix as well as the overall balance of how those qualities align. I love the fact that certain stones, coming from the earth, just have a vibrancy, an electricity, in their color and matrix, like it’s sitting in a puddle or a wet watercolor. How can you not love something that beautiful that comes from the ground? When I see a stone I love, I can see it in the finished article of jewelry it will ultimately end up in.”

 

“I love making jewelry that someone will want to wear every day, not keep in a drawer: to be keepsakes that are passed on: from the Earth, through me, to you.”