6 ORNAMENT 35.5.2012
contributors Ashley Callahan
46
is an independent scholar and curator in Athens, Georgia. She is the author of Georgia Bellflowers: The Furniture of Henry Eugene Thomas (recently published by the Georgia Museum of Art), as well as books on the modern designers Ilonka Karasz and Mariska Karasz. She first met Debra Lynn
Gold during the fifth Atlanta Contemporary Jewelry Show, a vibrant and well-organized event, then at her lovely, art-filled home. Gold's conversational style is a delightful blend of a craftsman's love for metal and a teacher's desire to instruct and encourage—resulting in a wholly positive and enjoyable experience.
Ellen Howards 28
has been an art writer and editor for eighteen years. She is the former editor-in-chief of Art New England magazine, and teaches at Emerson College. While researching her profile of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston curator Yvonne Markowitz,
she was struck with the recurring thought: "I am never leaving this museum." After hours and hours haunting the place, she was welcomed by the mummies themselves as one of their own.
Jo Lauria 34
is an independent curator and historian who has lived her life following William Morris's dictum, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." She received her specialist training in the fields of decorative art and design as an
assistant curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Since leaving the institution, she has worked as an independent curator and art/design historian, contributing to the field through publications, lectures, and exhibition development. Most recently, she organized the exhibition Golden State of Craft: California, 1960-1985 for the Craft and Folk Art Museum (Los Angeles) in partnership with Craft in America, sponsored by the Getty Foundation's