SPREAD | ArtCulture

“Like paradoxical black sheep and prodigal son” wrote Anatole Broyard in his autobiographical tale, “Kafka Was the Rage,” as he described the outcasts and rejects, who lived in Greenwich village after the Second World War. When Derrick Cruz read these words more than five years ago, he knew right away that it would help name and shape the story for his accessories brand.  Broyard’s words captured Cruz’s repatriation to New York as an adult.  “Like paradoxical black sheep and prodigal sons,” he said, “we all come here [to New York] kind of outcasts, being rejected, seeking something new, seeking redemption of some sort. When I saw that line, I knew that was going to be the name and, aesthetically, it became more about archetypes that, in my head, were both wise and stubborn at the same time.”

Five years later, Cruz has made Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons a much-coveted jewelry and lifestyle accessories brand. Inspired by his Native American heritage and aesthetic inclinations for funerary and alchemical imageries, Cruz’s work looks deeply into the soul of the past and passes it on for our modern world.  He tells stories through objects that teeter between art and craft. In his words, “It’s artful craft with the goal of blurring the line of kitsch, craft, and art, in order to create a sense of wonder. The main goal being is what does it say? Why does it feel like it has an energy of its own?” As we possess one of his creations, he gifts us a catalyst to add on to each handcrafted story that he has initiated.

The book box, for example, has been an early theme that Cruz has used repeatedly in his repertoire. Concealing a chain of curated charms, the book is sometimes used as packaging. To him, it is a literal representation of his desire to tell and inspire a story through his work.  He explained, “I wanted the packaging to immediately emote here’s the story that you need to read or you need to add to or you need to make. That’s why, in the packaging of the book, you open it up and the necklace is inside. It’s your story now, the moment you put it on.”

Cruz continues to push his narrative with each new piece he conceives. In “A New Hive,” he starts a conversation about bee extinction. He created the “Abandoned Comb Amulet” described as a honeycomb necklace encased in hexagonal sugar-glass pyramid filled with New York rooftop honey. In this piece, Cruz has made his story more interactive by giving the owner the responsibility to make a choice. “You have to make the decision—do you love this as an object or what’s inside more?” said Cruz. He then added, “The story is that we make the decision everyday with the way we treat the environment. The reason bees are disappearing is because we decided that we could tear through our environment to get certain things at whatever expense necessary. So, that was the story there. You have to make the decision yourself in this tiny little world. Do I love this beautiful thing or do I break it to get the gold?”

Cruz’s stories are enchanting, hypnotizing, complex, involved, and truly personal. It wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to say that any of his creations is like a fine book, a rare and prized possession that, if not old, has an old soul. It is perched quietly on your bookshelf for nobody else but you to treasure and enjoy. Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons’s storytelling pieces, according to Cruz, are evolving and getting better. When asked what is to come, Cruz replied with excitement. “I’m thinking about the universe now,” he said. “I’m thinking Carl Sagan; I’m rewatching Cosmos. I think I’ve got something but I can’t let that out of the bag yet.”