|
|
A native of Puerto Rico, Elfie Harris was raised in Philadelphia,
with summers spent at her family home on Martha's Vineyard. Trained
in porcelain and ceramic techniques at the Tyler School of Art
and the California College of Arts and Crafts, she turned her
attention to the jeweler's art in her late teens and became a
partner in a well-known jewelry firm in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts
where she worked in both design and manufacture.
It was during her undergraduate studies at Brandeis University
that she fully recognized her true calling as a sculptor. Having
begun there as a double major in computer science and sculpture,
she soon came to the conclusion the either of the two fields could
command her undivided devotion. Sculpture conquered her heart
without too much of a struggle.
Following her graduation from Brandeis with the degree of Bachelor
of Fine Arts with honors, the Thomas J. Watson Foundation awarded
Harris a fellowship that enabled her to spend a year in Italy
studying bronze casting techniques. While living in Florence,
however, she found herself drawn to sculpt in marble as well and
eventually moved to Pietrasanta, a historical center of Italian
stone carving. There she met the man who would later become her
husband and closest collaborator, Gianni Benvenuti.
After her return to the United States, Elfie Harris pursued graduate
studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated
in 1980 with the degree of Master of Fine Arts. Since then, she
has worked independently as a sculptor and jeweler and as owner
and manager of Harris Benvenuti Inc., a design firm.
Prized for their distinctive integration of sensuous beauty and
formal strength, proportion, and grace, Harris’s works in stone,
bronze, and Harrisium, a cold-cast material of her own creation,
have been exhibited in numerous American galleries and are represented
in several noteworthy private collections. |
|
