📝 usncan Note: This Artist’s Eye Paintings Are Inspired By Victorian-Era Jewelry
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Don Carney Lover’s Eyes with Coral & Pearl Beads Art Print in Silver Frame
Patch NYC
Artist Don Carney has released a series of fine art prints of Lover’s Eyes created from his watercolor and gouache paintings. The meticulously detailed works are inspired by Victorian-era eye-motif jewelry, printed in Massachusetts on archival matte paper, and framed under glass.
Carney’s works are sold through Patch NYC, a company he co-founded with his husband, John Ross, in 1998. Over the years Carney has created artwork for Patch NYC’s collaborations with the likes of luxury brand Hermes, Parisian ceramic atelier Astier de Villatte and French perfumer Fragonard.
Patch NYC’s collaboration with Hermes featured Don Carney’s original drawings
Patch NYC
The type of jewelry that inspired Carney (who was formerly Creative Director of Miriam Haskell where he designed custom jewelry for clients including Marchesa and Barneys New York) has a fascinating back-story. The custom of exchanging miniature eye portraits with one’s lover as sentimental keepsakes dates to 18th century England when George, Prince of Wales (who later became King George IV) proposed to his secret love, Maria Fitzherbert, with a painted miniature of his own eye. He started a trend. Soon these watercolor-on-ivory creations, attempts to capture the “window of one’s soul,” became popular amongst European aristocrats as a discreet symbol of secret love. After all, they only depicted the eye, so a lover’s identity could easily be kept under wraps while in plain sight.
Watercolor on ivory portrait of Sarah Best’s Right Eye, c 1800-1810. Made in England. Gift of Joseph Carson, Hope Carson Randolph, John B. Carson, and Anna Hampton Carson in memory of their mother, Mrs. Hampton L. Carson, 1935
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Over time these pieces – rings, pendants, lockets and brooches — came to symbolize general tokens of affection or protection. Queen Victoria often commissioned pieces from her personal Royal Miniaturist (Sir William Charles Ross) to depict her children, friends or relatives. When the eye images incorporated a tear, they symbolized remembrance or mourning.
For Carney, these pieces are a bittersweet homage to his mother, Carmella, who for years created her own works for the studio. “We were buying burlap for the back of our pillows and I was doing my drawings on that burlap,” recalled Carney. “I asked my mom if she could do some needlework for my drawings. She thought it was crazy, and that nobody would buy them, but people really loved them.” Presented in vintage frames, Carmella’s pieces — which also included owls, skulls, lips and pipes — were sold in high-end retailers including Barneys New York and Louis Boston.
Don’s mother, Carmella, would create needlework for Don’s drawings. Eyes were a favorite.
Patch NYC
Over the course of 15 years, Carmella created about 100 varieties of needlepoint eyes (among other imagery) that Carney and Ross would finish with vintage frames and then sell, via their website and shop in Boston, to collectors around the world. “Besides helping us, it was a great thing for her as she aged and started to lose more friends and family members. It filled a void for her.” The duo even held a solo show of her one-of-a-kind works in their Boston shop.”
Don Carney with his mom, Carmella Carney
PATCH NY
Carmela had a stroke several years ago and is no longer able to do the needlework that gained her legions of fans. Earlier this year, Carney and Ross were packing for a trip when they found a piece she had partially finished. “John finished it while we were on the Cape, so it’s a special piece,” noted Carney. “It made us realize there won’t be any more of these pieces. So the eyes I am doing originally started as a way to replace what she had been doing.” He adds that “I normally only paint for myself, so this was an opportunity to tap into another talent.” And, perhaps, fill a void for himself in the process.
Available at Patch NYC.
