Joya: AiR / Roanne Sanchez - Watts / GBR

photo Simon Beckmann

Roanne Sanchez - Watts / GBR

Joya: AiR is play. 

Breathing; crying too.

It is expanse, and marvelling. 

Joya: AiR was like holding a mirror up and seeing what was really within. 

During my two week residency, the space, the beauty and the shared community at Joya: AiR reawakened my practice. My confidence and association to the title of ‘artist’ was low, but felt honoured by being given it on my arrival. The trust and respect with which Simon and Donna welcomed all the artists encouraged a sense of investigation into my way of working. 

I spent the time drawing in the studio and responding intuitively to the land and my thoughts. The synergy between making, writing and reading produced a gentle momentum. For a while it feels like you are getting nowhere until you realise that you are actually somewhere. I ended up using simple mark making in stone and pencil to make rings that dealt with ‘meeting points’. They were my way of processing my relationship with my father, who lies ill not far from Joya: AiR. 

I made rings because I wanted to be close. I made rings, many of them, because I was touching a place I hadn’t before. 

Roanne Sanchez - Watts

Using jewellery as a storyteller, Roanne’s practice responds to the meaning found within human connection and acknowledges that jewellery can be the embodiment of the emotional and physical sentiments we share. Often uncomplicated, her forms invite us to place our own tales upon them. They are emotionally laden works, simply put. 

Roanne graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2020 with a BA in Jewellery Design.