Ornamental Elements

Priscilla Frake looks to the past and the heavens to inspire her work. As an enamelist, she is working “in the ancient art of fusing glass onto metal. Enamel was widely used and prized in the ancient world for its brilliant colors and for its durability and resistance to wear.” Her recent work“involves an exploration of modern and ancient images of the cosmos. I am inspired by photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope, and also by illustrations from Renaissance and alchemical texts. My work attempts to investigate the disparity between what we feel about the universe and what we now know about it.”