Wendy Gell is a jewelry designer who lives by a lake in Guilford where she watches for appearances of the elemental spirit who, according to local Indian legend, rises from beneath underwater caves, and the subterranean aquifers. Before coming to Connecticut, she was president and designer of Wendy Gell Jewelry, Inc., an international fashion and costume jewelry business in New York City and Key West, since the mid ‘70s. She calls this type of artwork Gelastic, (an out of use word from a hundred year old dictionary, meaning "capable of producing laughter; risable; and healing by laughter;") assembled from rhinestones, colored Swarovski Austrian crystals, small antique toys, cloth, assorted metals, plastic cherubs and religious artifacts. They some-times contain the profound imagery of Santaria art, but also the playfulness of retro-Americana. Her jewelry works have traveled widely -- to shops in Asia, South America, throughout the US, and especially to Europe, her most popular market.
Wendy was a jewelry licensee of The Phantom of the Opera stage production, and for Walt Disney movie characters. Her creations were collaborated with the release of such feature films as Dick Tracy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Her mixed-media "Wristy" bracelets and necklaces have been collected by such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor, Cher, Liberace, Elton John, Prince, Isabaella Rossellini, Michael Jackson, Princess Diana, and Hillary Clinton.
In the late ‘80s, she was interviewed many times on television, including the Opra Winfrey Show, MTV’s Addicted to Style, CNN’s Style America and Elsa Clench Fashion Tips, and ABC’s Good Morning America. Her jewelry has been worn on such magazine covers as The Ladies Home Journal (by Linda Evans), American, Deutch. and Paris Vogue, Essence Attitude, Amica Italy, Harpers (by Goldie Hawn and Cindy Crawford), Der Stern (by Claudia Schiffer).
Ms. Gell studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and at the New School, NYC. Her artwork has been shown in one-person exhibits at Animazing Gallery, NYC; the Harrison Gallery, Key West; and Disneyland, CA. From 1991 to 1995, her work traveled with Jewels of Fantasy, Fashion Jewelry of the 20th Century to Museo Teatrale alla Scalla, Milan; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Isetan Museum, Tokyo; and the Musee des Artes Decoratifs, Paris. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York, and the Walt Disney Archives.
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