Gerry Florida is an award-winning assemblage artist who refers to herself as a “Master of Imperfection”. Her creations deliver underlying messages of rebirth, recovery and reclamation through an array of salvaged, recycled and contemporary materials that she employs in work. Her intrigue with the “beauty of imperfection” has led her to work on behalf of at-risk populations locally and nationally fostering the belief that integrating failures, accepting imperfections and embracing differences is the path to living in harmony with the imperfections surrounding us and to living in sync with the real world and the one we can create.
BIO
I call myself a recycle artist reclaiming the “unsalvageable” to create what I describe as “paintings with beads.” As the former owner of Florida’s Estate & Jewelry Gallery, I satisfied my jewelry passion by collecting extraordinary estate pieces, many of which influence my designs. In my role as head designer of Paramount Glass Studios, Marcel Glass and Glass Classics Studios of Pittsburgh, I nurtured my fascination for glass and light. Apprenticing under some of the areas top glass designers, I witnessed the rebirth of the glass art as it transitioned into a contemporary purpose to include commercial, residential as well as religious design.
In 1998 a life altering environmental accident disabled me from working in the glass media I most loved. My challenge became finding a meaningful vocation that could combine my need to effect change in environmental awareness while incorporating my personal mission into my work. Realizing the importance of environmental factors on health, I converted to advocate for green living; practicing environmental awareness in my life and art. As a former National Corporate Division Director of United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, I was already on board with many missions. This along with my creative ability fueled my passion to reinvent or “recycle myself” to develop a home-based jewelry design business with a conscience.
Always in the process of recreating my art identity, I combined my passion for jewelry, art, glass and antiques to develop an eclectic mixed media style using vintage and contemporary beads and findings as well as salvaged objects to create inspiring one of a kind eco-friendly jewelry pieces. I recognize that I am a chronic ”junk junky” scouting for antiques, collectables and interesting new and used components to use in my recycling art. Surrounded by a vast and continually growing inventory, I search for “anything on the planet” conducive to stringing or wiring to create my pieces… employing a collection of contemporary, new with used materials in an eclectic fusion of mixed media wearable art I fondly distinguish as “Funkified Junk”. I unify color, mass and life experience while infusing new life and dimension into each salvaged ingredient, developing a line of jewelry that preserves the integrity of once abandoned objects. Each jewelry piece is uniquely designed and meticulously handcrafted using no toxic materials with no parts wasted.
My ongoing life-long recovery offers insight into the many challenges confronted by those met with trauma, tragedy and disability. I want to share my philosophy with all populations particularly those who are forced to face what seem unsurmountable hardship. My hope is that my experience and insight will spark passion in their own lives and enable them to integrate rather than deny negative experiences to develop a worthy, seasoned and viable identity. I have learned from my own experience and art that I am a “Master of Imperfection”, creating beauty from the “unnoticeable” …. which parallels my life philosophy that our true beauty lies in the imperfections in life.
My personal beliefs keep much of my teaching community accessible, teaching through community based profit and non-profit organizations with particular interest in working with seniors, children, disabled and at-risk juvenile populations. My work with at-risk youth populations has enriched the lives of my students as well as my own.
I derive my greatest inspiration from my ultimate creation, my daughter Sasha, my business partner and an artist in her own right.
