LYNDA WATSON
418 DARWIN STREET
SANTA CRUZ, CA 95062
(831) 426-9209
lyndawatson@cruzio.com
EDUCATION
California State University, Long Beach, B.A., 1966; M.A., 1969; M.F.A., 1977
GRANTS and AWARDS (selected)
National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Craftsman’s Grant ($5000.), 1977-78
National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artist Fellowship Grant ($15000.), 1984-85
Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year, 1998
TEACHING and RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE (selected)
California State University, Los Angeles, 1969-1970
Jewelry Designer, Signature V Collection, Reed and Barton Silversmiths, Taunton, MA 1976-7
Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA, head, Jewelry/Small Metals area,1970-1995, CabrilloARTS Workshop 2005-8
Studio Jeweler, exhibiting artist, arts activist, board member, workshop instructor,1995-present
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, N.Y. (now the Museum of Art and Design)
Robert L. Pfannebecker, Lancaster, PA
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
SELECTED RECENT EXHIBITIONS
1995 The Beautiful Object, solo retrospective exhibition, The Art Museum of Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz, CA
1995 Alchemy: Metals Made Precious: Lynda Watson-Abbott, 25 Years of Influence, The Pope Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA
1995 Jewelry from the Permanent Collection, American Craft Museum, New York, New York
1996 Cross Currents:I A Contemporary Survey of Jewelry by SNAG mMembers, juried,Shipley Gallery, Gateshead, England
1996 North American Metal Arts Exhibition: Heritage and Diversity, Montgomery College, Rockland, MD
1997,98 Watching and Waiting: Timepieces by Jewelers, invitational, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA
1998 Metals: U.S.A., invitational, Visual Arts Center, North Carolina State University, Charlotte, NC
1998 Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year , solo exhibition, County Government Center, Santa Cruz, CA
2000 Drawn from Observation, two person exhibition, Smith Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA
2001 Blade Slices Silk, A Contemporary Survey of Artistic Visions, Personal Themes and Techniques in Jewelry and Metals, invitational, Reese Bulln Gallery, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
2003 Beyond the Mines, The Art of Gold, Invitational, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
2005 Juncture;Jewelry Media Connections, invitational., Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts, Houston, TX
2007 “Framing the Art of Jewelry”, curated Exhibition in Print, Society of North American Goldsmiths, SOFA, Festival Hall, Navy Pier Expo Center, Chicago, IL
2008 Exhibitions travels to Museum of Contemporary Crafts, Portland, OR
2007-08 “And How! Celebrating Art and Soul in Contemporary Metalwork”,juried, The Gallery at the Airport, Eugene. OR
2008 New West Coast Design, juried, Velver da Vinci, San Francisco, CA
2008 Brilliant Metalwork:Jeweler’s Tatoo invitational, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA, SOFA, New York, NY
2008 Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
2009 “This House that I Call Home”, curated installation, Pajaro Valley Gallery, Watsonville, CA
2009 “For Artists, By Artists”, invitational, 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Yuma Symposium, Yuma Art Center, Yuma, AZ
2009 “Heirlooms of the Future”, invitational, Mobilia Gallery for SOFA, New York
2010 “Signs of Life, 2010”, Contemporary Jewelry Art Show and Literary Journal, Facere Jewelry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
1995 “Beautiful Objects: The Work of Lynda Watson-Abbott”, Chrlotte Moser, essay in catalog to accompany exhibition of the same name at the Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, CA.
Metalsmith, March-April, 1982, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1983,Vol. 8, No. 4, 1988; Vol. 9, No. 3, 1989, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1992, Vol. 13, No. 3, 1993, Vol. 15, No. 4, 1995, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2003, Vol. 25, No 1, 2005, Society of North American Goldsmiths
1997 Nouvel Objet II, (
1997 Ken Cory: Jewelry from a Modern Alchemist, Tacoma Art Museum and the University of Washington, Seattle , WA
2002 A Creative Legacy: A History of the National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist’s Fellowship Program, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C.
2005 500 Bracelets Lark Books, Asheville, NC
2005 The Penland Book of Metal Jewelry, Lark Books, Asheville, NC
Jewelry Techniques and Jewelry-Concepts and Technology, Oppi Untracht, Doubleday, Garden City, NJ
Work has been shown and reviewed in numerous magazines, jewelry texts, surveys and technical books from1967 to the present including three Lark Books published in 2005.
2006 California design, The Legacy of West Coast Crafts and Style, Jo Lauria and Suzanne Baizerman, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA
Metalsmith Exhibition in Print Framing the Art of Jewelry, curated by Ellen Lupton, Society of North American Goldsmiths, Volume 27, No. 4, 2007
2009 "Design and Make: Mixed Media Jewellery:Methods and Techniques", Joanne Hayward, Macmillan Distribution Ltd., Houndsmills, Basingstroke, UK
2010 "500 Silver Jewelry Designs", Lark Books, Ashville, NC