Industrial-Tribal neckware from metals and natural materials

Materials: no diamonds or gold, not my bag, man. Silver, though, but more copper alloys and aluminum. Bone, antler and teeth. Wood, soapstone. bamboo coral and baroque pearls. Odd things found in the woods, along railroad tracks, or abandoned industrial sites. Rock slabs from local dealers and shows. I could incorporate a small sentimental object of yours.

Some of the objects I make are more like small sculptures that 'can be worn. As a thought experiment, imagine the piece placed in an architectural model or model train layout. Does it look like oversize jewelry (Brobdignagian/Oldenberg) or sculpture? Most of the recent works are made specifically to be worn around the neck (though I think they look great on a wall, too), where bilateral symmetry can be anthropomorphically talismanic and totemic. Rustic, primitive, tinged with retrograde space-age back-to-nature futurism. Industribal. Cottage Industry from a Singlewide.

Born in Atlantis (yes it does, it's near Cleveland, nobody ever looks there), Pittsburgh, NYC, Yosemite and environs, Santa Cruz, Ellensburg WA, San Francisco, Bend and Ashland OR, Wickenberg, AZ.

My educational background is in architecture (Carnegie-Mellon U) and photography (Pratt Institute, Pratt Graphics Center, New School, UC Santa Cruz, Central Washington U, etc.). My photography was mainly large format alternative processes. I'm also a musician (http://www.youtube.com/user/DeathRowTull). Never had a music lesson.

"Many contemporary jewelers speak of their works as being symbolic amulets, another indication that the primitive concept of the jewel being capable of possessing magic powers is far from dead. However, the growing complexity of contemporary society has resulted in a loss of meaning for many traditional originally widely understood. In creative works these are frequently replaced by personal, private, or evn hidden symbols whose intention or meaning may be inscrutable, and that spring from a private fantasy world. In such cases, the limit imposed on communication may be deliberate, since a jewel invested with apparent (but unknown) meaning becomes a provocation, and either a challenge or an invitaion to the viewer to become involved with the "provocateur" in an attempt to understand its significance". [Oppi Untract 82 Jewelry Concepts and Technology] Nov. 1932 Coco Chanel: ' The reason which led me initially to devise costume jewelry was that i found it free from arrogance in an age when ostentation was all too easy. But this consideration disappears in a period of financial crisis when an instinctive desire emerges again for authenticity in everything, thus restoring an amusing piece of paste jewelry to its true level.' [exhibition brochure for diamond jewelry]

Artist Highlights

• ArtWanted.com Gallery:    Art/Drawing Misc.