D u rin g a v isit to A rg en tin a ,
G oldgew icht lea rn ed p in e needle
b a sketry -a n d h a d an epiphany.
Left: The organic shapes
of Guldgewicht’s vessels
suggest gourds, boats,
tree hollows and often
the human form.
Right: Goldgewicht
learned traditional pine
needle basketry from
her husband’s aunt, fiber
artist Delfa Deriu.
and bronze. “T o survive as an
artist,” she says, “you have to
be able to do a little bit o f
everything.”
A t craft fairs, customers
tend to misplace the aesthetic or
influence at play in her pieces,
w hich look at once contem po-
rary and prim itive. “ I hear, ‘Oh,
they’re so Southw estern, or
Latino, or N ative Am erican,’ ”
says G oldgew icht, w ho doesn’t
mind. “ E verybody sees what
they w ant to see.”
I f anything, the deeper shade
o f soul in G oldgew icht’s w ork
is a reflection o f the unspoiled
beauty o f her homeland, w hich,
b y some measures, preserves a
greater percentage o f its natural
habitat than any other nation on
Earth. “ It’s a country that val-
ues its nature and tries to pro-
tect it,” she says. H er paternal
grandparents immigrated to
Costa Rica from Poland just
before W orld W ar II. H er fa-
ther was born there and became
a biologist; her mother, a native
N e w Y orker, made jew elry.
Like many artists, G oldgew icht
always knew she’d be one. She
w as already exhibiting sculp-
ture and pottery locally when
she got a fine arts degree from
the National U niversity o f
Costa Rica in 2000. T hat same
year, on a visit to Argentina,
she learned pine needle bas-
ketry from her husband’s aunt
D elfa D eriu, a fiber artist, and
had an epiphany.
“ Instantly I said to m yself,
‘O K , I have to poke holes in
the pottery and put [w oven
pine needles] on top.’ That
was it.”
In 2007 G oldgewicht and
G otlibow ski decided to try
their luck in L .A . She still feels
a bit new and unsettled in this
land o f freew ays and strip malls,
but enjoys the sunshine (Costa
R ica’s rainy season can last up
to eight months o f the year) and
the brown-gold landscape, so
different from the abundant
green w ith w hich she grew up.
W ith so many Californians va-
cationing in Costa R ica these
days, she gets frequent remind-
ers o f home. A m azingly, she’s
met m ore than one customer
w ho bought her w ork in some
tourist shop years ago.
“ I’ve heard people in B ev-
erly Hills w alk past m y booth
and w hisper, ‘D on’t w e have
that?’ T h at’s very cool.”
+
Joyce Lovelace is
A m e r i c a n
c r a f t
i’
contributing editor.
060 american craft dec/jann
