End of the Semester!

Well I made it through my first semester of grad school!
Below are some images of my work and the some of my samples that I made during the semester. I have been trying out enameling and electroforming which has been a bit of a headache. Right now i am a bit sick of these processes but maybe the winter break will do me some good.

School Days...

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted but I must admit that I have been a little over whelmed with grad school. I don't even feel like I have been making a lot its more like I have just been thinking a lot about what I want to make and how to make it and why I want to make it and all that sort. Man I am tired just mentioning all this thought process that has been going on in my head.

Anyway school has indeed officially begun and above are pictures of my fabulous studio space. I have a jewelers bench, desk and soldering station all to myself! I love that Monika Krol and I used to share a space this big.

So far we have had a crit on the 100 drawings we had to do over the summer and a crit on the 10 pieces we had two weeks to make. The 10 pieces were basically supposed to be "sketches" in metal or at least in a 3-d form. Below are a few of the pieces I presented at the crit. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos but I hope you at least get the picture. For these piece I was thinking a lot about judgment or in some cases the absurdity of it.



The Last two piece of my 10 were these two little quirky chairs made from brass mesh. There is something about them that I really enjoy and I am not quite sure what it is. So I wanted to explore this idea of "the chair" and all its meanings. I have come to think of the chair as a status symbol; literally where you sit in society. I have begun working on a few projects dealing with chairs but none of them are in any way resolved yet. In fact after a discussion I had with my teacher Myra Mimlitsch-Gray they may be extremely altered. Who knows maybe I will even stop working on leather altogether! but here they are in their currant state.

So that's all I have for now I will try to add more soon. but in order to do that I must get back to work!

Time to take it easy

"The Princess and the Pea"

Thanks to the help of the wonderful, talented and good looking Chris Whetzel my website has been updated! All of the new work from the show at Art Star is now on it. You can also view all of the work in the show at Art Star's website. The opening went really well and I would just like to thank every one that came. It was wonderful to see so many formilar faces. If you haven't seen the show it will be up till Sept. 1st so you have some time to stop in.

So now that the opening is over I am back in NY hanging out and trying to get my life in order. I was supposed to be at Snow Farm, New England School of Craft but they had a bit of a scheduling mishap which resulted in me not getting to teach. Oh well. I suppose its for the better since I seem to have come down with a summer cold.

Once I beat this cold I am going to finish the "100 drawings" I have to do for the start of classes at SUNY New Paltz. Perhaps i will post some of my sketches next time. Just remember that I am a jeweler not an illustrator.









"The Goose Who Laid the Golden Egg"

One week till the show...

A lot has happened since my last post. First of all, I've moved to Beacon, NY. It's a cute artsy town on the Hudson about an hr train ride from NYC. I love the new apartment but I'm still getting used to not being in a city and away from all of my friends. I'm Sure I will meet plenty of new people once school starts. Until then, I will be heading back to Philly on Wednesday to set up the show at Art Star. The opening is next Saturday the 19th from 5-9pm. In addition to the new work from the AYM Collective there will also be live music courtesy of Jack McBrearty and light refreshments. After the opening I will be heading up to Snow Farm, New England School of Craft in Mass. to help teach metals/jewelry to high school students. After the craziness of the show and moving it will be nice to escape to the Berkshires for two weeks. My only regret is that ill be leaving Chris with no one but the cats in our new apartment. Hopefully he will make some friends to go fishing with in the brook across the street.

So as of today all of my work for the show is finished! I still have to photograph the last two but
below is a brooch titled, The Hunt for the White Stag. It is made of leather, stainless steel, sterling silver, 10k gold
So now that all of the work is done I really have to get down to business on completing 100 sketches. Thankfully there are some good coffee shops in town where Chris and can go to get some work done. Oh we discovered that Beacon 's art galleries all have openings on the second Friday of the month. Open Space, the gallery right below us has shows some interesting work. I was really taken with a large piece by Iminent Disaster. If I had the money I would definitely commission her to make a piece for our mantel. Maybe she would be interested in a trade. Any way check it out. I'm off to bed. Good night and sweet dreams.

Hard at Work vs. Hardly Working

Well I have finally done it, I have begun my blog. It only took me about two months since creating this account. To give my self some credit I have been a bit busy with preparing for my move to NY for grad school next year at SUNY New Paltz. I have also been busy preparing for an upcoming show at Art Star with Monkia Krol and Yoko Tazaki. So far I have 2 piece finished and 2 more underway. I will hopefully have Six new pieces for the opening on July 19th.

Below are the two finished pieces...

The Title of our show is "My Royalty." I chose to approach the topic by identifying aspects which I associate with royalty rather than depict a specific person I consider to be royal. When I think of royalty I first think of the pursuit of the throne so most of my pieces will actually be from the perspective of one who is about to become royal or about to lose their power depending on how you look at it. In the first piece the girl is reaching for the golden apple, about to gain the glory of all its knowledge or if you are a follower of the bible she is about to loose her place in Eden. In carving the bird I wanted to capture the energy of royalty. I chose to have him grasping a golden apple as I am using it in both of these pieces to symbolize my ideal "royalty." Can you tell I like apples? I don't think, however, that there will be any other fruits in the next few pieces to come. I am back on my deer and skull kick. When will I stop being so morbid? oh well as long as the pieces are well made maybe I will find a kindred spirit to buy them.