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True to life
Artist's intricate metalwork tells stories of her experiences

by Rebecca Wallace

In a back room at the Palo Alto Art Center, artist Marilyn da Silva prepares for an exhibit, carefully unpacking pieces of her metalwork. Purple neoprene gloves give her the air of a surgeon.

Da Silva is also revealing memories. Each piece that emerges from boxes is rich with symbolism, reflecting events from her life.

The pair of candelabras titled "Hung Out to Dry, V and VI" tell a particularly difficult story. They're rooted in a fire that burned da Silva out of her Oakland home in 1993; afterwards, she started making candle-snuffers and candelabras, voicing her frustrations and sadness about the blaze and the subsequent battles with her insurance company.

Made from plumbing pipe, the "Hung Out to Dry" candelabras are painstakingly detailed. Both have tiny letters created in metal scattered around the base, symbolizing the heaps of mail to the insurance company and an attorney. One of the letters has been scorched by a miniature iron.

"The cord on the iron is a snake," da Silva points out. "That represents the insurance company."

One candelabra also has a poignant-looking birdcage dangling from it, with more letters lining the cage.

"The cage is open and the bird is gone," da Silva says.

These and other works by da Silva will be part of the Palo Alto Art Center's pair of autumn exhibits, which open Sept. 28. Home is a recurrent theme.

The other show is "A Model Building," where the art by various artists calls to mind architectural models and renderings. It includes the video presentation "The House That Herman Built," in which Jackie Sumell and Herman Wallace illustrate the ideal home described by a man who had been in solitary confinement for more than 30 years.

Da Silva's exhibit is her first at the Palo Alto Art Center, and it honors the 100th anniversary of the California College of the Arts, where she is program chair of the jewelry/metal arts department. She has focused on metal as her primary medium for many years, since being inspired by professor Alma Eikerman during graduate school at Indiana University.

Now da Silva is especially known for her use of gesso and colored pencils on metal, Palo Alto Art Center curator Signe Mayfield said. This technique allows her to enrich her metalwork with color and her drawing skills.

In "House of Cards," for instance, the back of each golden card is covered with a lilac checkerboard pattern. Inside the cells created by the house of cards are pale-green eggs.

Da Silva created this work shortly after the 9-11 attacks. The eggs represent hopes and dreams, and empty chairs fill the other cells, symbolizing people. Atop the house is a European starling, a bird common in New York.

"They're beautiful but nasty; they steal eggs," da Silva said. This bird, she said, helps to illustrate the theme of the work: the precariousness of life.

"You don't know if he's landing (on the house of cards) and it'll collapse, or if he'll take off and it'll collapse."

What: Autumn exhibits at the Palo Alto Art Center, featuring Marilyn da Silva and other artists

Where: 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto

When: Sept. 28-Dec. 22. A metal workshop with Marilyn and Jack da Silva (her artist husband) is planned for Oct. 20-21.

Cost: The exhibit is free. The workshop is $230 ($200 for Palo Alto residents).

Info: Call 650-329-2366 or go to www.cityofpaloalto.org.