With all the stressors of college, it’s hard to remember the bliss of childhood, when our greatest fears were being caught tracking mud in the house, not being able to play outside on a rainy day, and waking up our parents if we laughed too loudly during sleepovers.
SU senior Brigitta Stoner – or Gitta, as her friends call her – hasn’t forgotten her childhood and revisits memories through her metalwork that depicts the beauty of nature as she encountered it while living in her rural hometown of Aaronsburg, PA. As a child, Stoner took advantage of the wide, open space that her hometown offered and spent a great deal of time wandering in fields and through patches of wildflowers.
Stoner came to SU without any experience in metalwork whatsoever, but with a great passion for creating jewelry that she began to nurture in high school. “I saw the opportunity to take jewelry and metalsmithing courses on SU’s website and was interested,” she shares. “I decided to try it and ended up loving it!” She now fabricates all sorts of intricate pieces, from pins to bracelets to rings.
She attributes her artistic ability to her family, who dabble in creative writing, painting and drawing. Unlike some fellow students, she also feels fortunate that they’ve always supported her work. “My family and close friends understand exactly what I’m working toward,” she reveals. “I wouldn’t be able to pursue such an unconventional path without their support and help.”
Overall, Stoner uses her talent as a way to hold on to the precious moments of her life and avoid fearing the future. Not surprisingly, much of her work is memory pieces – sentimental items, like a pin made of stones that she collected from her grandfather’s farm, or a ring fashioned from coal that her grandmother had given her.
With graduation right around the corner, Stoner is aware that she’s about to enter another chapter, where she will be figuring out where she’ll go and what she’ll do with her life. Whether she follows her current plan of returning to grad school in a couple of years or gets a job working for a foundry, we’re certain she will continue to create beautiful jewelry that will be vessels of her childhood recollections.
Stoner will be showing her work sometime this spring in the Shaffer Art Building, where she plans to have a series around the little things that she collects while walking.
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