Angela Martin Kobrick is a Southern-born artist and designer based in New York City. Trained in architecture, with a background in commercial and hospitality interior design, she works across painting, ceramics, jewelry and photography. Her majolica knot beads were published in 1000 Beads (Lark, 2014).

Artist Statement

I have been drawn to the same things my whole life: coastal color, organic form, and the bold, saturated patterns of the 1980s and '90s. Rather than question that pull, I've learned to follow it.

I paint in watercolor, gouache, acrylic and ink, often layering several in a single piece, and I usually have a number of works in progress at once. Even with familiar materials and themes, each work begins as an experiment. What I'm after is balance that still holds moments of surprise: color that melds unexpectedly, and a composition that carries the eye from one detail to the next. When a piece arrives there, it has an energy I can feel. When it doesn't, I move on.

The same impulse shapes my work in clay and metal. Across hand-built stoneware vessels and jewelry, flowers, sea creatures and invented organic forms recur. They are not quite any one species, but they clearly belong to the same world. Many of my flowers trace back to my grandmother Gunny's wild rose, blended with details from my favorite varieties. It is one conversation, carried across different materials.

My training in architecture shows up as an eye for composition, a sense of space, and a commitment to craftsmanship. I think of the work as design, collage and color operating together, all made by hand in New York City.