Issenberg’s own work is highly innovative, fusing steel with black and white photography to create a variety of art forms including jewelry, sculpture and furniture. Functional art is the underlying theme to most of her work. Take, for instance, her cafe chair. Is it art or is it a chair? The chair has simple lines, legs dressed in velvet stockings and a tiny photo of mountains on the backrest. You think twice about sitting on it, reluctant to turn your back to the local landscape. Still, the chair looks so inviting. This tension is how Issenberg gets her audience to reconsider what is functional.
Issenberg’s education includes a BA in social psychology from Tufts University. She’s also studied metal arts at the Rhode Island School of Design and silversmithing at the Boston Museum School of Art. She continued her fine arts education at San Francisco State University where she studied black and white photography. “I took photos in the city [San Francisco],” she says, “but my inspiration comes form nature.” Incorporating the photographs of places she loves into the work that she loves has become an Issenberg trademark. “It’s interesting to see how the impact of my black and white photographs changes in the different applications. When I put one in a necklace or bracelet, it becomes a very intimate, personal piece for the wearer. It’s something they can hold in their hand and hold sacred. When I put a photo on a larger sculpture, it draws the viewer into the piece; the sculpture now holds the viewer.”
