Artistic Statement Revision 4

I am a jewelry designer born in Seoul, Korea and majored in international business administration at college. In senior year at college I was fascinated by materials to appraise gemstones which my mother brought home with her endless desire to study. I decided to change my career to be a gemologist and I went to Gemological Institute of America in USA. As I study more about the gemstones, I became more captivated by the inexplicable colors of gems. I went to art school against to learn jewelry design because I really wanted to create something along with gemstones. I worked hard as an apprentice under strict German professors at Rhode Island School of Design for three years. After I attained my B.F.A. degree in Jewelry and Light metal, I finally became a jewelry designer.

Rhode Island is famous for the graceful natural environment of evergreen and pine tree forest by the ocean beach. I used to collect colorful pebbles and sea glasses worn by waves on the beach. The subtle color changes of my collection by the stunning sunset light had astonished me all the time. In my jewelry, color of stones is the most important element along with the other materials I bring into play.

I love mixing the vivid color stones with unusual materials such as felted wool fabrics, interesting laces piece from old cloth, and black and white pictures, which are not conventionally used for jewelry, to bring in unexpected event of color play. People who buy my jewelry always point out the lovely mixture of colors and warmness of the jewelry. Besides the elements, I always believe that good jewelry must be easy and comfortable to wear and go well with any kind of occasions, and look distinctive. Most of my customers are wearing my jewelry in casual wears or ready to jog with strollers.

The purpose of art has been argued throughout history. As a lover of art, I always claimed for it more active and broader influences like practical and functional aspect of art. To my thinking, I always see the role of art as communicational apparatus with society. Jewelry is one of the very personal objects to express themselves to the public by wearing small size of art works. In this perspective, by wearing distinctive art jewelry, one can express the personal characteristic. I see many influential women who wear jewelry not only for decorating body, but also as performances to express her emotions to public.

I always enjoy to look at paintings, especially the paintings by Gustav Klimt(1862-1918), Austrian symbolist painter in his “Golden Phase”. His works are distinguished with using decorative colors and elegant solid gold as background. Those paintings are reminds me medieval mosaic wall paintings and Japanese style lacquer painting on the wood. He is also famous for the bold expression of erotic female body in his painting. To me, a gemstone is like a female body which is really attractive and seductive and always makes me eager to design.

Making jewelry is an architectural experience in the micro universe. When the architect builds a house, he or she would consider many aspects through the process such as functions, practicability, durability, structure and proper materials. The jeweler reflects the same ideas like architect and fabricates all of components one by one followed by logical order.

Working with expensive materials taxes me also, because some of gemstones are really vulnerable and easy to break with low heat and pressure. Nevertheless, the most nerve-racking obligation of my job is making the piece into ideal proportion. Since the subtle change of fraction can cause a decisive mistake to ruin the entire look. Consequently, I have to continuously train my unaided eyes to observe the tiny world correctly and my hands to work gently with the sophisticated materials.

I love my job and my hobby and always enjoy working in my one-woman studio at home in Connecticut. I wish I could keep making jewelry with the fresh look and cheerful color combination to make people happy and I would like to grow my companionships with others who like me and my works forever.