Artist Karla King found a beautiful way to tell a very important story.
Karla King descends from the King, Clairain, Fitzmorris, and Abney families. And with twin great-aunts named Louise and Anna.
So it’s clear that there are deep ancestral roots for her love of Louisiana. A love that was sparked anew by a recent tragedy—the gulf oil spill.
“I was helping my friend Melanie Driscoll from the National Audubon Society while she was working the spill down at Grand Isle,” recalls Karla, when strong emotions began to well up inside her about what was happening to her state.
“And as an artist I found myself wanting to externalize that emotion.”
“Most people will know me as a professional costume designer to theatre and dance for the past twenty years, or more recently as a painter,” she explained.
In the midst of all this she found herself looking carefully at the state seal on a Louisiana flag. More specifically, at the mother pelican at the center of that image.
“And it hit home that it’s all about the adult bird taking care of the young,” she continues. And in that moment she also saw a larger message about Louisianans taking care of our own.
Her quest to create something artistic from that revelation would take her in a new artistic direction—jewelry design.
A friend guided her to master craftsman Shavarsh Kaltakdjian, owner of Shavarsh Jewelry Design.
“I came to him with the vision,” she says of an image she’d formed from carefully studying state flags and older state seals. Her adaptation would bring larger guardian wings to the mother pelican to allow her a more encompassing embrace. And it would place her in the serene setting of a lotus-flower inspired background.
Shavarsh would take Karla’s vision and, pairing the latest software technology with the ancient art of lost wax casting, create a stunning pendant in sterling silver.
Working at a bench alongside his father, Shavarsh’s son, Shahe, takes each piece as it emerges from the mold, then cleans and polishes it to remove all imperfections.
For Karla, the beautifully rendered piece of silver is imbued not only with the rich history of her state as it celebrates its 200th birthday, but with her own personal journey.
“It is about my moving away years ago to Dallas and New York City to find out what the world had to offer me,” she recalls of her years “abroad,” some of which she spent working for Liz Claiborne—whom she was to discover was a descendant of Louisiana’s First Governor, W.C.C. Claiborne.
“And it is about my move back home,” she continues, “and learning what I have to offer to my community. It is about the artists out there, struggling everyday, to continue doing their art as a living, and not having to move away to do it. It is about finding kindred spirits right here in my city that allow me to do what I do.”
Now she hopes that the image she has created can take on a similar story for each person that wears it, and become a repository of the memories of their own story thus far, as well as a reminder that there is much adventure to be discovered on the journey ahead—for each of us, and for our state.
“It is about the past 200 years of the state,” says Karla, “But most importantly for me, it’s about the present and the next 200 years.”
LouisianaCharm
• The LouisianaCharm jewelry line includes a pendant, earrings, lapel/hat pin, cufflinks and tie tac.
• Sold at www.louisianacharm.com, and www.etsy.com (LouisianaCharm).
• Sold in Baton Rouge at Shavarsh Jewelry Design (tax-free Mid-city Arts District) and at The Silver Sun.
• Each design is readily available in sterling silver, and also in gold upon request.
