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<\/p>\nby Remi Escudie | Photography by Dave Barfield<\/p>\n
After almost three decades of teaching at Tallahassee Community College, Barbara Edwards has become a staple in the local photography community. She recently switched venues and mediums to open up \u201cSilver Euphorium,\u201d a small studio and shop in Railroad Square that sells handmade jewelry (and some black and white film photographs, of course).<\/p>\n
\u201cOver 29 years, I witnessed the artistic growth of so many talented people. I have several students out in the world working as successful photographers,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cTeaching was the best job I\u2019ve ever had, but it was tough. My dream was to have a studio and shop of my own, where I could saunter in and close anytime I want, and now I\u2019m giving it a shot. If not now, when?\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards planned to have a shop for many years, but with her position as a professor she never found it feasible. It was not until she retired from teaching and stumbled onto a new art form \u2014 hand crafting silver earrings, necklaces and rings \u2014 that she seized the opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t wait any longer to do what I wanted to do, so I\u2019m glad a spot was open here,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cRailroad Square is an amazing place \u2014 it\u2019s on the cusp of greatness. Our shops are very accessible and I\u2019m surrounded by working artists. It\u2019s a good life.\u201d<\/p>\n
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With the change is scenery comes a change in lifestyle. The free-form environment of an art park is much more relaxed than that of a university.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have people telling me what to do anymore, but I do miss being around young people,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cI love seeing and working with students who are passionate about art, and I felt privileged to watch their growth and be a part of it. Students would tell me years later, \u2018you changed my life.\u2019 I was just doing my job, but i\u2019s still very flattering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just because she is nostalgic does not mean Edwards isn\u2019t happy to be living her life for herself. Teaching can be a selfless endeavor, especially if one works in academia for 29 years. This transition comes as a welcomed sigh of relief to Edwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m living my dream. It\u2019s fun \u2014 I love it. I love not having a set job. I get here around 11 and start making jewelry and listening to music. You\u2019ve got to engage as many senses as you can; I eat something sweet, make jewelry and talk to people that come in. Then, I get to go home when I please.\u201d<\/p>\n
After many years of perfecting a craft, it is not common for an artist to abruptly switch their medium. Photography, however, requires an artist to rely on the objects and subjects at their disposal. These objects are not infinite, especially if one has been shooting in the same area since 1976.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still shoot occasionally, but I\u2019ve photographed everything within a 200-mile radius, so I usually don\u2019t take a whole lot of pictures anymore unless I\u2019m traveling,\u201d said Edwards.<\/p>\n
While she still has a photography studio at home, Edwards now spends most of her time in the shop, which doesn\u2019t allow for much time to be dedicated to photography. She finds the newness and simplicity of her silversmithing a refreshing departure from intricate photographic processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy photography always had to have some kind of story, as well as having strength in form and content,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cThe jewelry is different; it\u2019s just pure form. It\u2019s like you’re fabricating tiny little sculptures. It\u2019s a nice change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of the medium, Edwards\u2019 artistic soul is as strong as ever. With new inventive exploration comes renewed inspiration; the thoughts and emotions and soul that form the creative process can now be re-expressed in new ways.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEverything you experience in life feeds on itself in art. You take in all these things, and somehow they become stirred up in your psyche and get spewed out when you create. A lot of times you don\u2019t know where it comes from,\u201d said Edwards.<\/p>\n
It is this beauty in uncertainty that makes artistic expression so valuable, and a thriving creative community so essential to the health of society. Railroad Square is Tallahassee\u2019s hub for artists, and Barbara Edwards\u2019 Silver Euphorium is now a piece of Tallahassee culture. Although Edwards\u2019 is no longer in academia, she will continue to play an important role in the creative development of our city.<\/p>\n
Note: In the title, the former \u201cSilver\u201d refers to the silver gelatin process, a traditional form of photography characterized by black and white negatives exposed on film, the latter \u201cSilver\u201d refers to silversmithing.<\/em><\/p>\n Remi Escudie is a journalist and senior at Florida State University. He seeks to promote environmental awareness and conservation through writing and photojournalism.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Remi Escudie | Photography by Dave Barfield After almost three decades of teaching at Tallahassee Community College, Barbara Edwards has become a staple in the local photography community. She recently switched venues and mediums to open up \u201cSilver Euphorium,\u201d a small studio and shop in Railroad Square that sells handmade jewelry (and some black […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[310,3,54],"tags":[47,211,95,147,313],"class_list":["post-1094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-community","category-tallahassee-maker","tag-art","tag-craft","tag-local","tag-photography","tag-silver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1141,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions\/1141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}