Numerous articles about Enid Kaplan and her work have been published in magazines and periodicals throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Korea – notably in American Craft, Metalsmith and a cover story in Lapidary Journal.

The following are excerpts from some of these articles:

“Enid Kaplan: Roses and Cannibals”, by Anne Loranger – Vie et Sante, March 2000

In Enid’s studio paintings, drawings, sculptures and jewelry dance together in a whirlwind of feminine energy.  Symbols of eyes, hands and stairways are used with all sorts of diverse materials.  “I love to scavenge the streets for found treasures – glass, broken records, bones – and then to integrate them with precious metals and stones.  I love the challenge of combining things that appear to be contradictory.  When I succeed in integrating these materials so that they express something I really want to say, it brings me an extraordinarily powerful feeling.”

 

“Medicine Artist”, by Mark Lurie – Lapidary Journal, September 1999

I’m a story teller,” says Kaplan, a studio artist and teacher who is also a popular draw on the lecture circuit.  A breezy and articulate speaker who projects an earthy glamour, she leaves audiences transfixed by exotic images and vignettes from her travels, which have included stints among many diverse tribal peoples. Those who come to hear her also listen attentively as she describes the ways in which such experiences have shaped her outlook on life and the look of her jewelry.

“In my work, I want to touch people.  I want to communicate.  So, while I think really good art starts with your personal journey, it becomes a universal journey.  And you’re making visible the invisible, which is the same thing that the shamans are doing in all of these cultures.”

“I think butterflies are the universe’s pastel sketches – They’re so ephemeral.  The whole idea that the universe is giving us this incredible beauty,…. for such a fleeting moment: I think it’s a reminder that change is constant, and not to hang on to things.  Even things of beauty will be destroyed and then from death comes new life.  The butterfly is a reminder to let all things pass, and we get in trouble when we try to hang on to anything.  We kill it…

When commissioned to create a particular amulet for someone she will ask, “What do you want to let go of in your life, what do you want to enhance, and what do you wish you had that you don’t have?”  The concept is… to help you reach your potential, to be who you want to be.”  …  “I’m a medicine woman, in the sense that I’m putting things together with a healing intention.  I think that what makes a piece of artwork powerful is very often the intention of the artist.”

 

“Enid Kaplan: Joanne Rapp Gallery”, by Robert Lalonde – Metalsmith, Fall 1998

The recent exhibition of Enid Kaplan is a fascinating exploration of the artist’s deeply personal evolution…  Compounded with mythical reference and a hallucinatory aura, Kaplan’s work opens a rare window into her psyche.  …For Kaplan, who has been profoundly effected by travels to such places as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, the elemental conceptual basis for her work appears to be two-fold.  A deeply rooted personal struggle to achieve spiritual power is accompanied by a calling to tell the story of that journey.  By these means, she plays the role of the modern cave painter.

Kaplan has found herself assigned the task of surpassing the role of object maker.  She has chosen instead to provide a spiritual link, by making the “invisible world visible”…

“Enid Kaplan: Suspensi Spiritus”, by Kelly Mitchell – Metalsmith, Spring 1995

Enid Kaplan’s work as a contemporary artist is a three-dimensional testament to her belief in the complexity of human nature.  …Her new series is an ambitious project which squarely confronts the dualities that live in all of us: good and evil, hope and despair, strength and weakness, trust and betrayal…

Kaplan’s amulets find their meaning in the realm of the personal – for the artist, the wearer, and the viewer.  One gets the sense that she created each amulet as she came to know herself in the situations and psychological states that they portray.  For those among us who accept her offering, it is a deeply personal one to receive.

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