Kate Jones Design

kate jones

EtsyMetal Blog Carnival

February Topic: Non-Metal/Jewelry Creativity

Tell us about other kinds of art and craft you do. What other media do you work and play with? How often do you get to create? Does it relate to or inspire your metalworking?

Although metalwork is my comfort zone, I enjoy working in other media as well. I don't think that most artists really limit themselves to particular media. It is all about the need and desire to work through the creative process of designing and making things.
Between my job as a teacher and being a mother to a two-year old, I have to be somewhat obsessed with finding time, usually at night. There is always work in progress, as sometimes things take me months to finish, and I work on MANY projects at once. It doesn't really matter to me how long it takes to finish the 2D work, as I don't exhibit or sell it, it is for me.

I am interested in organic and anatomical structure, and the perfect design and pattern found in nature. These natural forms and networks can speak about the fragility/strength of the human condition. This is a mixed media (collage, acrylic, pastel) on board:

structure, 2010

I love printmaking processes, as they are very tactile and material based, much like metal. I do woodcut, etching, and some lithography. At work, I am lucky to have use of a printing press. This is a lithograph portrait of my husband, Jim:

jim, 2008

This is another mixed media piece, (collage, acrylic, ink, on paper). I was experimenting with mixed media techniques and enjoying the process of letting go--hard to do with metal. Sometimes it is nice to not have an idea of where something is going, but I am still drawn to the same types of forms, not matter what media I am working in.

landscape, 2010

As a high school art teacher, I make exemplars for many lessons that I assign my students. It gives me an opportunity to understand the issues that they may face as they work through the processes that I assign. I enjoy going back to observational drawing practice, as it helps to inform any artist. It is all about SEEING, after all.
It is important to my teaching practice that I serve as an artist exemplar, so that they can see that being an artist is a life-long pursuit. The following self-portraits were done alongside my students as an assignment on blind contour, looking at details of the subject, only peeking minimally at the paper. This convinced the students to trust the hand-eye coordination to record details accurately, as these look quite a bit like me. When I do an assignment with them, it also diminishes the hierarchy of the teacher/student relationship, and we relate to each other as fellow artists. I wish I had the time in my workday to do this more often.