Anything for Jane

Books provide me with an endless source of inspiration for my art projects. Like many people, I am a fan of Jane Austen’s literature. I find that Austen does these very detailed descriptions of her character’s inner life that helps me understand myself and others a little better. What is so interesting about Austen is that her subject base was so narrow (upper middle-class English people in the early 18th century) yet so universally appealing. Aren’t we all–no matter our age, nationality, or social class–interested in our relationships familial, social and romantic?

How to tell a jewelry designer from a jewelry artist

Emerging jewelry artists often go through an agonizing process of not only learning to create their work, but also in deciding whether to call themselves jewelry artists, jewelry designers, craftspersons, or artisans.

There are a large number of archived discussions on jewelry bulletin boards and in jewelry groups that further blur the distinctions and add complexity to the issue of naming oneself and one’s work.

Through critical analysis of books by established jewelry artists, industry websites (including jewelry and metalsmithing programs at fine art schools, museums, and galleries, and by becoming familiar with fine art jewelry organizations like the Society of North American Goldsmiths) and by training the eye to understand the distinctions between art, craft, and design by looking at the work of artists, designers, crafters, and artisans, the process of distinguishing a jewelry designer from a jewelry artist becomes simplified.

A jewelry designer is a person who creates jewelry from existing components. Those components may be fine metal chains of gold and sterling silver or they may be more democratic jewelry components made of copper, plastic, and paper. A jewelry artist, on the other hand, creates all or the majority of her/his components by hand including all the clasps and other findings, beads, bezels, pendants, etc. A jewelry artist will be proficient in metalworking, beading, gem setting, and other skills necessary to fabricate her/his vision.

Hierarchies of Public Space

The upwardly mobile characters in Jon Armstrong’s Grey, live in a futuristic world where they dine on exotic, fried whale sandwiches and are able to travel via private international highways. The idea of a private highway gives new meanings to Faith Popcorn’s predictions about the future of personal zoning. (Personal zoning, as described by Popcorn in her Dictionary of the Future, is any cordoned area reserved exclusively for the wealthy, e.g. VIP seating in nightclubs, or special service times where the rich can receive personal attention without having to come in contact with the general public).

Themes of transportation and the future of the social class structure are important elements in the T.R.U.E. project, and I have a feeling I’ll be thinking a lot more about Popcorn & Armstrong….