COIN ARTIST MICAH ADAMS

Chris Fuccione writes:

Wayne Pearson writes:

 

Whether we know it or not, each of us carries around miniature artist multiples almost every day. Coins might not be worth much more than the fraction of a dollar stamped to their sides, but they express something about history and design in their finely wrought details.

Artist Micah Adams discovered this eight years ago in the tiny maple leaves on the soon-to-be-discontinued penny. Using a jeweller's saw with a blade a quarter-of-a-millimetre wide, he cut out each one until he created a Lilliputian pile. When the copper was heated, the leaves turned iridescent colours, just like in autumn. He has reassembled the details on our currency in many ways ever since.

His skill at working in a small scale began in the jewellery studio at art school, but the roots of this interest go further back. I would pick little things up off the street when I was younger and keep them in my pocket, like they were precious, he says. Adams eventually concentrated on coins because he was fascinated, in part, by the mint's graphic decisions, quirks and all.

For example, he discovered that those three pinpoint markings around the caribou head on Canada's quarter were meant to represent something more significant. The designer, Emanuel Hahn, wanted to include the Big Dipper, he says of the 1937 arrangement. But just these three dots are left.

This inspired Adams to erase the quarter's embossed designs, all but the trio of stars. To help make this intervention even more visible, he recreated the coin in page-sized, ballpoint drawings that look like enlarged rubbings.

To read the complete article, see:
Micah Adams Coins a New Art Form (https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/micah-adams/)

I should have opened my conversation with Micah Adams by offering him a penny for his thoughts. Literally. The Toronto-based jeweler coined a new technique by creating pins from maple leaves he carves out of Canadian pennies. "I made some pins from the leaves as presents for friends, and it caught on," he said when asked to explain the origin of his work with coins.

The penny project soon morphed into an ongoing hunt for scrap metal coins at fairs. As his collection grew, Micah began to group them according to their motifs, whether that was flowers or animals. Using a jeweler's saw he then cuts out the shapes that inspire him to create his signature brooches, like the rabbit and Canada Goose pieces he designed from the 1967 centennial coins Alex Colville created. Micah shares Colville's affection for what some would deem to be ordinary. "The main draw with coins were their designs and looking for things I could collage," Micah explained. "I never thought I would focus on coins, but it's 75 percent of my work. It just slowly took over."

 

I believe it's the role of an artist to bring beauty into our lives, sometimes working with objects that we use every day. Their purpose is to transform ideas into objects and represent these ideas outside pure functionality. It's a sentiment that resonates with Micah.

"[My work is about showing how] to see things in a new light; to see objects in a way that you haven't looked at them before… I want people to recognize where things have come from. I like to use everyday objects. When you realize a piece is made from coins, maybe you start to look at your coins a little bit differently.

To read the complete article, see:
Penny Wise: Micah Adams captures big ideas in miniature pieces made from coins (https://www.ruepigalle.ca/blog-posts/penny-wise-micah-adams)

 

 

For more information, or to order examples of Micah's work, see:
https://www.lapaigallery.com/collections/micah-adams

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: FEBRUARY 20, 2022 : The "Winged Roosevelt" Pattern (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n08a09.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web