Marilyn da Silva (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Grrevank; born 1952) is an American sculptor, metalsmith, jeweler, and educator. She teaches and serves as a department head at the

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...

in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

. Da Silva has won numerous awards including honorary fellow by the

American Craft Council The American Craft Council (ACC) is a national non-profit organization that champions craft based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1943 by Aileen Osborn Webb, the council hosts national craft shows and conferences, publishes a quarterly maga ...

(2007).

Early life and education

Marilyn da Silva was born in 1952 in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...

. She attended

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a Public university, public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research ...

and graduated with a B.S. degree in 1974. She continued her study at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest camp ...

and graduated with a M.F.A. degree in 1977. In graduate school she worked under

Alma Eikerman Alma Rosalie Eikerman (May 16, 1908 – January 3, 1995) was an American metalsmith, silversmith, and jewelry designer who was instrumental in building the metals program at Indiana University, of which she retired Distinguished Professor Emeri ...

. She is married to jeweler and silversmith , whom she met in graduate school.

Career

Da Silva is known for her technique of added color to metalwork using a colored pencil. Her sculptures often feature imagery of objects such as birds, rabbits, books, and houses. Da Silva is a professor and the department head of the jewelry and metal arts program at

, since 1987. She previously taught at Bowling Green State University from 1978 to 1987; and has taught workshops at

Penland School of Craft The Penland School of Craft ("Penland" and formerly "Penland School of Crafts") is an Arts and Crafts educational center located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, about 50 miles from Asheville. History The school was f ...

, Haystack Mountain School of Craft,

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is an Arts and Crafts center in the U.S. city of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The oldest craft school in Tennessee, Arrowmont offers workshops in arts and crafts such as painting, woodworking, drawing, glass, pho ...

, and the

Mendocino Art Center Bill Zacha (born 1920 in Garland, Texas, died March 18, 1998 at Fort Bragg, California) was an artist and entrepreneur who founded thMendocino Art Centerin Mendocino, California and by doing so started the artistic revival of Mendocino.... Zach ...

. Da Silva is an Honorary Fellow of the American Craft Council since 2007; she was awarded Master Metalsmith by the National Ornamental Metal Museum in 1999; and she was awarded the Master of the Medium award from the James Renwick Alliance in 2017. Her work can be found in the museum collections at the

Arkansas Arts Center The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA), formerly known as the Arkansas Arts Center, is an art museum located in MacArthur Park, Little Rock, Arkansas. The museum is undergoing an expansion and renovation. During this time, it is closed to the ...

(also known as the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts), the

National Ornamental Metal Museum The Metal Museum, formerly called the National Ornamental Metal Museum, is a museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded by artist-blacksmith James Wallace, the museum is devoted to exhibitions of metalwork and public programs featuring metalsmiths. ...

, the

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Ca ...

, and the

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) is a contemporary art museum with four branches in Gwacheon, Deoksugung, Seoul and Cheongju. The museum was first established in 1969 as the only national art museum in the country ...

in Seoul.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silva, Marilyn da Artists from Akron, Ohio Bowling Green State University alumni Bowling Green State University faculty Indiana University Bloomington alumni California College of the Arts faculty American metalsmiths Living people 1952 births 20th-century American women sculptors 20th-century American sculptors