NEO-PALEO BROOCH of fossil fern, sterling silver, twenty-two karat gold, 7.9 x 3.2 x 0.8 centimeters, 2025. ORION BROOCH/PENDANT of natural surface lapis lazuli, sterling silver, 9.9 x 3.0 x 0.6 centimeters, 2025. MODERNA EARRINGS of sterling silver, twenty-two karat gold, 4.4 x 1.9 x 0.5 centimeters, 2025. McKeown’s Neo-Paleo brooch includes a fern fossil with small gold-lined cups suggesting floral growth, like a posey pin from ancient history. The angular Orion brooch/pendant shows her inclination to be a builder, to compose a deceptively simple structure with flat abstract shapes; the rich blue lapis lazuli, with its rough cut echoed in the textured areas of silver, suggests the night sky and its constellations. Like Orion, the brooch/ pendant Rift touches on one of McKeown’s passions— space. She went to her first Star Trek convention at age twelve, and such fantasy worlds have provided numerous design and title inspirations over the years (Galactica Earrings, The Mirror of Galadriel, Mandalore Earrings, and Ni’Var, for example). With a curving, elongated piece of sparkling pyrite reflecting the swirling arcs of the sterling silver in which it is set, plus gold Keum-boo circles and an orbiting oval of rutilated quartz, Rift captures the movement and marvel of space. Recently, McKeown’s work has taken a narrative turn. “When I first started making jewelry, I was twenty-four, and I didn’t know if I could make a living at it… I just worked, worked, worked. I did all the right things, I bought a house, I had health insurance.” Then, about ten years ago she realized that she’d “never really taken the time to think about what [her] work was saying.” Now she has embraced the narrative. “I feel this really pressing need. There are things that I want to express through my work… It’s really rewarding.” She adds, “It’s interesting to watch people react to [the narrative] pieces because I think that the energy you put into the work, it imbues that piece with energy, like how our thoughts imbue the world with energy.” One narrative work, a brooch titled The Embrace, resembles a slightly wilted or windblown sunflower and represents McKeown’s rejection of perfection as the standard of beauty. It has a round, warm yellow cabochon of Baltic amber in the center surrounded by silver petals. She explains, “Our society conditions us to believe that anything less than perfection is flawed and a failure, enslaving us to a myth. But true beauty lies in the flaws, the manifestation of mistakes, struggle and decay. It is through these that true creativity is born.” Visible through the amber is a human form in silver curled up in a fetal position conveying both despair at societal pressures and the possibility of new life. THE EMBRACE BROOCH of sterling silver, Baltic amber, 8.9 x 8.3 x 0.6 centimeters, 2024.
Ornament Magazine Volume 45.4 2025: Page 22
