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I’ve always been drawn to how artists transform ideas, materials, stories—how they take what once was and make it newly relevant. Whether it’s a painter transforming memory into color, or a jeweler like Suzanne Donegan transforming antique jewels into contemporary pieces, I’m fascinated by how materials become stories. This piece I recently bought at Good Together House in Laguna Beach, had a life before me—maybe even several. Suzanne put together the people who wore these pieces prior, collected the stories of the special events to where they might have worn these pieces with delight, and gave them to me. And wearing it now, I feel connected not just to Suzanne, but to the unknown hands and histories that came before. That’s the beauty of art: it links people across time and experience. And buying directly from a maker becomes part of that connection—it’s personal, intentional, and reminds me that art isn’t only something we look at. It’s something we live with.

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