| Jewel Clark metalsmith |
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I have a bachelors and masters degree in fine arts with an emphasis in metals and jewelry. I attended the University of Texas at Austin for my undergraduate degree, studying with Thelma Coles. I studied with renowned metalsmith and enamelist Harlan Butt for my graduate degree at the University of North Texas in Denton. After graduate school, I was hired as Artist in Residence in Metals at the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Smithville, TN. I assisted the professor, Bob Coogan, in the upkeep of the studio and helped students with their projects. In addition, I taught metals workshops in my specialties: fabrication, enameling and chainmaking. In 1997, I also began teaching art history, one of my passions, at a local community college and working on my own jewelry lines and one of a kind pieces in my home studio. Workshops, involvement in TACA, the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists, teaching and running my own studio kept me very busy. In 2002, I went back to school to pursue another of my passions: computer arts and animation. I found a small college in Tempe, AZ that suited my needs and moved to the Valley of the Sun. After completing an associates degree in computer arts, I returned to metals as the Artist in Residence at the Phoenix Center for the Arts where I taught adult workshops in metals and jewelry for three very rewarding years. As soon as I finished my tenure at the Phoenix Center, I was fortunate to be offered a residency in Metals at the Mesa Arts Center, where I currently have my studio. I consider myself an artist working in the medium of metals; the format of jewelry. I strive to make unique, beautiful, perfectly crafted wearable art. I am heavily influenced by the perfection of Ingres' line and brushwork, Asian metals and textiles, 17th C Dutch still lifes, 19th C Romanticism and Symbolism, 20th C Surrealism and Dada, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th/ early 20th Centuries. All of these influences have an elegance or conceptual basis which informs my personal aesthetic. I also find endless inspiration in nature, especially the landscape of the desert Southwest.
And yes, Jewel is my given name :-) |
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