A letter sent to Peter in support of the Handshake Project. March 2022
Found leaf. small moment of jewelleryness.
As a busy full time jewellery artist and business owner, over the past two years, Handshake has kept me anchored to my somewhat elusive artistic practice.
In a world where I work hard to generate work for myself, where not a lot of it is necessarily creative, but rather tedious and repetitive, being part of Handshake6 during 2020 and 2021, kept me committed to the production and delivery of relevant Artworks. Juggling deadlines, fundraising ideas, venue changes meetings with my overseas mentor or with fellow Handshakers, kept me always on my toes and gave me a great sense of belonging even during the most challenging of times.
Overall, after two years of working together with my mentor and fellow mentees I am more confident, my creativity is prolific and my artistic practice has developed to a higher level to when I first started.
I’m proud to belong to the great family of creatives that is Handshake and I look forward to continuing its story, being part in as many other chapters it may have.
Many thanks Peter Deckers, Hilda Gascard and CNZ
Macarena Bernal