Monday, June 15, 2009

Metalsmithing Painter / Paintersmithing Metal

here is a detail image of the torch fired disc enamel earrings that I completed today and will soon be posting to my shop. It's interesting to me that I have found ways to incorporate my painting and color into my metalsmithing, considering that I started out my art career as a painter!

Why did I switch from painting to metals? well, I always had a tendency towards painting in 3 dimensions- I used to create styrofoam armatures and connect them together with paint , so they would end up being relief sculptures with richly painted surfaces..
Essentially, I was making wall Jewelry..LOL

That was in the 80's, when everyone was painting BIgger, Bigger, Bigger...(and all I wanted to do was paint smaller and smaller...)
So, I resisted the push for painting and started concentrating on what made me the happiest at the end of the day, Metals.

I found that I could translate my ideas on painting and sculpture into metals, with various methods of adding color, texture and structure...
I love how metals has such a deep vocabulary of techniques, and each diverse method effects my compositions in different ways.

I also love that my work becomes a part of the wearer's life in ways that a painting usually cannot. in effect, I feel like each day that someone wears one of my pieces outside of their home, my work becomes miniature pieces of public art....

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