When you first see a Cheri Dunnigan piece of jewelry, you know you’ve stumbled across something important. This isn’t just your everyday jewelry. Oh, no. This is real art. And it’s no wonder, because Dunnigan, beyond being an exquisite metalsmith, is, in fact, an artist.
Born with a strong creative drive, her artistic aspirations began early in life–quite early–when she remembers, “being in Sunday school, working on one of those two-piece construction paper Christmas trees that we made as kids. I must have been three or four years old at the time. I remember my mother coming to pick me up and I was still very absorbed in coloring and making my tree. I heard the ladies commenting on what a beautiful job I was doing, especially for one so young, and my mother telling them, ‘well she wants to be an artist,’ and I remember looking up and adamantly saying, ‘No! I’m going to be an Armenian artist!’ They all laughed…and I can remember not understanding why on earth they were laughing because I was so serious!!! But somehow, in my young mind these two things were inextricably connected.”
Dunnigan was fortunate to have parents who recognized her creative drive and nurtured it throughout her childhood. Her high school had an excellent and unique art program which, in her sophomore year offered a craft class in addition to art, introducing her to the contemporary craft movement through jewelry-making, batik, macrame and pottery. “The first project that we did was to make a hammered wire brooch,” Dunnigan recalls. “From the moment I touched the metal, I was hooked! I had always thought that anything constructed out of metal had to be made with heavy machinery. It was absolutely mind-blowing to me that you could create jewelry with metal by hand! I really fell in love with metal and the processes of forming metal.”
Her teacher was a weaver named Marion La Follette, and her husband, Curtis, was a masters degree silversmith who taught at the Massachusetts College of Art, and later at Rhode Island College. Toward the end of her sophomore year, Dunnigan decided that she wanted to be a silversmith as well. “I remember my father asking Marion how I would go about that, and asking if I’d be able to make a living as a silversmith,” says Dunnigan. “She assured him that her husband was doing quite well. With that, my father asked her what we should do, and she suggested signing me up for classes at a local museum. That next week, I was enrolled in a number of summer classes in silversmithing and even a bobbin lace class, simply because it looked interesting to me!”
Dunnigan would go on to complete a five year BFA in silversmithing at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1978. The Cleveland Institute offers a stringent program with a heavy studio emphasis. The first two years involve classical training in the fine arts; life drawing, painting, design, etc., and the last three years is concentrated study in your major. “It was a highly disciplined and demanding program that had me working in the studio seven hours a day. That rigorous schedule was instrumental in giving me a strong work ethic which has been invaluable throughout my career,” Dunnigan believes.
After college, Dunnigan opened a studio showroom and made a living making jewelry and doing commission work for many years. “Designing and making jewelry became a consuming passion for me, and the demands of my business left me little time for other means of creative expression.”
She was married in 1989. She closed her studio and moved to Maine and then moved a number of times over the next few years, but continued to work as a jewelry designer during those years. “In 1994 we landed in Naples. Throughout those years we had hoped to start a family, but had been unsuccessful. When we got to Naples we were blessed to find out that I was indeed pregnant. I was 40 years old…and that year our son Matthew was born.”
Her metalsmithing was put temporarily on hold as she embraced her new responsibilities as a mother.
“Our plan was for me to be a stay at home mom until Matt started school, and then I would resume my craft, but when Matt was three years old I became quite sick,” Dunnigan relates. “It turned out that I had systemic lupus. One of the ways that lupus was affecting me was with terrible joint pain. I began to have enough trouble with my hands that it became apparent I was not going to be able to work at the bench as I had in the past.”
At this point the established metalsmith was at a sort of crossroads.
“It was a very difficult time for me as I grappled with the reality of life with limitations, but at one point I felt the Lord say to me, ‘Don’t focus on what you can’t do, focus on the things you can do!’ I knew I needed to have some creative outlet, and decided it was time to try painting. I was intrigued by pastels, though I had no experience or training with them. My husband bought me a set of Windsor Newtons and I began experimenting.
“What happened next was nothing short of miraculous. I would literally crawl into my little studio in terrible pain, and come skipping out several hours later like a different person, excited about my painting and feeling remarkably better! I would tell my husband, ‘Come see what I just did!’ and he was stunned. First of all, he had no idea that could paint, but even more, he couldn’t get over the change in my physical condition; it was startling! He encouraged me to keep at it.”
Dunnigan did indeed keep at it. Told by her doctor she would never be able to work, she defied this defeating negative proclamation and within a few years was teaching painting at the Center for the Arts in Bonita Springs and at the Naples Art Association. She also received national credentials with the Pastel Society of America.
“In time my condition went into remission,” Dunnigan explains. “In many ways, I believe I painted my way well! Painting opened up an entirely new world to me. I painted full time for about fifteen years. The type of arthritis that lupus causes doesn’t destroy your joints. Instead it affects the soft tissue, so, when you go into remission, your joints improve. Over the years, my hands did improve.
And so did her painting. Dunnigan’s paintings offer breathtaking glimpses into her inner worlds, whether it be flower-adorned sacred spaces of comfort and safety or winding paths and roads of hope and longing, snow-kissed, beloved northern homes with hints of nostalgic blue or the sleepy, enchanting coastal vistas we know so well here in Naples. Certainly, she can paint the bowl of fruit with finesse, but her forte is the ability to evoke that mysterious presence that no amount of money can buy nor years of experience can give you, that essential je ne sais quoi that is the key to bringing art to life–either you have it, or you don’t. Her art breathes; it whispers its story.
And so, too, does her metalwork. As much as Dunnigan enjoys painting, she is, at heart, a metalsmith. That same creative genius at work on the bench has produced astonishing results. Dunnigan’s pieces are a clever weaving together of textile techniques using metals. She is a leader–a visionary–in the contemporary jewelry design movement. She found her way back to metalwork about fourteen years ago. Initially, her passion was fueled by a discovery related to Armenian Needle Lace.
“During the years that I was painting, I made special pieces of jewelry for my mother each year for Christmas, her birthday and Mother’s Day. It was a great way to maintain my skill level, and bless my mother. Sometime around 2010 I began to realize that I might be able to do more jewelry work. That year I had made a necklace for my mother that included some fancy medallions. Somehow I knew that I had found something exciting that I could run with in those medallions. I began to design and create a line of jewelry that led to my Byzantine Collection. My Armenian/Italian heritage seemed to resonate through these pieces. Over the next few years my focus shifted again and painting moved into the background as my passion for jewelry and metal was reignited.”
Dunnigan’s Armenian heritage plays a vital role in her jewelry-making.
“Throughout my creative life I had always wanted to create something that reflected my Armenian heritage,” she says. “We have a very sad history that was marked by the terrible Genocide of 1915. During the Genocide, 1.5 million Christian Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks. I grew up in the shadow of that Genocide. The Armenians had been known as great craftsmen in the Ottoman Empire and were successful merchants. During the Genocide, the entire population was uprooted, homes were looted and our culture was almost erased. I had thought perhaps I would one day paint something that would reflect that time, but the right ideas never manifested.
“As I was developing and making the Byzantine collection, I began to incorporate ebony into the pieces. I loved the combination of high karat gold, silver and pearls against the rich black ebony wood. One night I was getting ready to assemble the first ebony medallion. I was very nervous about it because it was going to require a lot of very precise drilling, so after I got everything set up, I decided to take a short break, to have a cup of tea and calm my nerves! As I sipped my tea, I checked my emails and there was an email from the Diocese of the Armenian church asking for prayer for the archbishop who was gravely ill. I clicked on a link that was there, thinking that it might give more details about his condition, but instead a huge article came up about Armenian Needle Lace. What was most striking was that there were photographs of the lace that looked just like the piece that I was making! I quickly grabbed my laptop and showed it to my husband! I asked him what he thought and he answered, ‘I think you just had a DNA leak!’ It was amazing!
“What is most interesting is that Armenian Needle Lace was one of the Armenian crafts that survived the Genocide. It’s an extremely fine type of lace that is unique to our culture. The patterns, which are highly symbolic, were handed down for generations from mothers to daughters. After the Genocide, the Red Cross and Near East Relief gathered the survivors, who were mostly women and children. They were kept in holding centers where they waited to see if any of their relatives had survived. Because the lace could be made with just a needle and a thread, and the patterns were held in their hearts, the women began making it to pass the time. When the relief agencies saw how fine and how beautiful this lace was, they had the women teach the children how to make it and a cottage industry was birthed that was instrumental in the survival of these women and children. The lace was sold all over Europe in order to raise much needed support. That night I felt as if the Lord handed me the thread and said, ‘Make it now in precious, incorruptible materials.’
“Over the years the medallions have taken on layers of meaning. Traditionally Armenian women wore elaborate head coverings and jewelry made up of chains draped with coins or medallions. These forms and patterns are also seen prolifically in ancient art both of Armenia, Rome and the Mediterranean. This imagery seemed to emerge spontaneously in my work. At times it has felt supernatural. It has been incredibly satisfying to make pieces that seem to come from such a deep place, that reflect and honor the past and yet bring something new to the present.”
Over the past fourteen years, Dunnigan has honed in and refined these textile techniques in her metalwork.
“There seems to have been a textile thread running through my work in a variety of ways over the years,” she relates. “A little over ten years ago I was working on a pendant and I needed a chain for it. I couldn’t find a commercial chain that was suitable, so I decided to weave one. I had learned to weave chain in college, so I got some wire out and proceeded to make what I needed for the piece. As I worked on the chain I found myself really enjoying the process and getting some interesting ideas about manipulating the weaving. This led to an exciting new creative direction for me as I began to innovate and expand on this weaving technique.
“When COVID hit, my business evaporated, and like everyone, I suddenly found myself with lots of time on my hands. I used that time to really focus on the woven work and was able to greatly expand my vocabulary with that technique. I was able to finesse the techniques to create larger vessels and sculptural pieces. I also began making ruffled pieces at that time. There is a natural spin that occurs with this technique that lends itself to forms found in nature–shells, ferns as they unfurl, the radiating center of a sunflower. I’ve always loved those forms in nature and it’s been fun to incorporate them into my work.
“In the last year I’ve been developing a lace vocabulary with this technique which I’m very excited about. I’ve also been working on a large series of brooches that follow a botanical theme. Brooches are a great format for testing out ideas, and I think of them as small wearable sculptures.”
Dunnigan was asked if she could meet with any artist, living or dead, who would she choose? “If I could meet with any artist, it would be my former instructor, John Paul Miller,” she replied. “He was my professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art and I believe one of the greatest artist craftsmen of the 20th century. I admired him so much, and learned such a great deal from him. He very much shaped my artistic life. I would love to show him what I’ve made and discuss it with him and let him know just how grateful I am for his kindness and for everything he taught me.”
Her advice to aspiring artists? “I think the life of an artist is rife with ups and downs,” she cautions. “That was difficult to grapple with when I was young. Accepting that was important. Learning that you have to motivate yourself as an artist and learning how to challenge yourself is essential. As artists, we often work very independently and in the solitude of our studios, so we have to be self-motivated and focused. I was fortunate in my education that we spent full days in the studio. That helped me to establish a solid work practice and to view my work as a full-time job. I never start working unless I have four or five hours set aside to work.
“If I were to advise young artists I would encourage them to develop a good skill set, first and foremost, in their desired medium. You need that skill set in order to communicate visually; it’s essential.
“Secondly, I would encourage them to make beautiful things. Beauty is compelling…when you encounter something beautiful you sense it and you can’t take your eyes off of it. Beautiful work will be noticed.
“There is an emphasis in the art world today to follow trends, whether it be upcycling or social activism, or a variety of other things. The problem with that is that fine art is never trendy; it may start or establish a trend, but I believe the finest work never follows–rather, it leads.”
Naples Noteworthy agrees. That’s why we’ve named Cheri Dunnigan a Leader in the Contemporary Jewelry Design Movement for her innovative textile weaving techniques inspired by her Armenian heritage.
Dunnigan describes herself as happy with her current life. “Life is good right now. I’m very grateful to still be making beautiful things. I hope to be able to continue to create for many more years and to keep my work moving forward in a meaningful way. Being able to wake up every day and have interesting and challenging work to do is every artist’s dream. I’m so grateful to be living that dream today.”
For both metalwork and painting, Dunnigan’s spiritual beliefs impact her art in ways that sometimes defy articulation or explanation.
“My faith is integral to my life and as a result it’s integral to my creative process,” she explains. “I became a Christian when I was in my early 20’s and it was a transformative experience. I’ve had such a strong need to create that I have to believe that God made me that way and that somehow He has a purpose in it.
“There have been so many times when I’ve made a piece and I have had a sense that a force larger than myself was at work in helping me to put it together…I’ve heard other artists who are not believers often say the very same thing. For want of a better word, the creative process can often seem magical, or supernatural–times when you just know how to do things that transcend your natural abilities or when a solution to a problem suddenly pops into your head out of nowhere. In many ways, the creative process has become a faith walk for me. Ideas flow from one piece to another, as do solutions to technical problems; it’s often prayerful.
“I also think that creativity can bring about a deeper intimacy with God. He is the ultimate Creator and we garner a glimpse of that and who He is when we create. With everything God created He said, ‘It is very good!’ I’ve tried to embrace that same aesthetic, always seeking beauty and excellence in my work, hoping that what I make might above all be pleasing to Him.
“For me art and craft are the most thorough historical record that we have of mankind. Through the best of times and the worst of times, man has created, in one way or another. Those objects are a visual record of countless cultures and civilizations–who we are and how we lived. I feel very strongly that it is a privilege to be a part of that timeline and to be adding to that historical record.
“Once, many years ago, I was alone at night in my studio, and I had just finished a beautiful piece. In fact, it was exquisite; so much so that I could hardly believe that I had made it. I felt like God whispered to me as I held it in my hand, ‘Cheri, you are the first person to see this; you’ve brought something new into the world. Nothing quite like this has ever existed. Let’s you and I enjoy it.’ That was such a revelation to me, such a big thought! That when we make something, no matter what it is–because it has come through you–it is unique, you bring something new into the world. That is the essence of art and creativity. For me, that is why I create.”
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Cheri Dunnigan’s work is represented by the Method & Concept Gallery here in Naples. For inquiries into Cheri’s metalwork or paintings, contact her at cheridunnigan@mail.com | (239) 591-2128. Visit her sites at Original Oil Pastel Paintings by Cheri Dunnigan and Cheri Dunnigan Fine Jewelry. Galleries of both her metalwork and paintings are shown below.
From Cheri: “I’m very grateful to have had family members that have supported my work. My parents were amazing and it was especially hard when they passed away for me because they understood my artistic journey in ways that no one else could, having been there from the beginning.
“My husband Tim and my son Matt have also been wonderful. They’ve always encouraged and supported all of my efforts and I think, understand and appreciate my work. They accommodate my crazy working hours and encourage me through the ups and downs of being an artist. We also have a little cockatiel named Loki who is always by my side when I’m working. He follows me into the studio and especially loves to oversee things when I’m soldering!”