Liz Wallace was born to te Tachiinii Clan (Red Running Into the Water People). As a young girl Liz would watch her parents, Alan Wallace and Kathryn Morsea (both renowned artists) as they made their own works of art in gold and silver. Liz has been actively creating jewelry since 1996. Liz's favorite motifs include the "classical" or "traditional" Navajo style as well as designs that represent the Art Nouveau period, a time when artists believed images taken from nature and myth should work in harmony with materials to create a total work of art.

"I have always admired and been fascinated by fine jewelry, its construction, the materials, and and the various socio-cultural contexts in which it was created.  While I will always love the ingenuity and resourcefulness exhibited by old Navajo and Pueblo smiths, my inspirations are diverse.  I am both a product of my environment and of my choices within it."

Liz Wallace is of Navajo and Washoe/Maidu heritage, yet one of the most influential figures in the career of this Northern California-born jewelry artist is a Yankee craftsman from New England. Wallace, 28, has been designing and creating silver and turquoise jewelry for most of the past decade. Two years ago, she was invited to spend time in the New Salem, Massachusetts, studio of master jeweler and jewelry repair expert Bob Bauver. The experience "woke up" and energized her creative spirit, she recalls. With newly acquired techniques and materials, she suddenly had the ability to more freely explore the diverse areas of design inspiration that have enticed her since childhood.

Both of Wallace's parents were jewelry artists when she was young, and they included her on trips to Santa Fe Indian Market. As a result, she absorbed a love of turquoise and silverwork, especially as expressed in traditional Navajo jewelry design. Yet her own exquisitely crafted pieces reveal an equal fascination with floral forms, architectural details, insect life, the graceful fluidity of Art Nouveau and the stylized lines of Art Deco design. All of these are reflected in her work, which blends traditional motifs and methods with a highly contemporary look.

In her early 20s, Wallace gained a foundation in jewelry creation while working at a Santa Fe gallery and doing jewelry repair for a local art dealer. Primarily self-taught, she developed a style of earrings that sold well and was picked up by buyers for Ralph Lauren. But she was restless to stretch her artistic wings, and the opportunity to sit at a workbench beside Bauver was just what she needed. Among the techniques Wallace learned from Bauver is the enormously time-consuming process of plique a jour, translucent enamel well suited for Art Nouveau-inspired designs. She also does the lapidary work for her jewelry and is learning blacksmithing in order to fabricate her own silversmithing tools.

Wallace's jewelry at the Heard show will includes pieces in which the wings of butterflies or other insects, or flowers and foliage, are made of richly hued plique a jour enamel. Known as well for her use of high-quality turquoise, she also incorporates coral, pearls, petrified wood, opal and other stones, and occasionally works in copper or gold. - By Gussie Fauntleroy Published  01/2/2005 Native Peoples Magazine