"Contained" 2011
by ~TallGuyKen

It has been some time since I have last updated my deviant account.  I believe the last time was back in June of 2010.  Around that time I started to feel the need for change, growth, and to do something greater than I had been thus far.  My art was showing signs of becoming stale warning that I was loosing sight of what I was wanting to do.  Many of the designs I worked on were dumb down versions of previous pieces or simply lacked deep meaning and passion.  This realization of what was happening made me pause and really ponder what it was that I wanted.  I looked inward to see what it was that I needed to get back to were I had been and to continue working on that path.

I spent many months talking with my good friend Kevin and going back to the old design to see what I had lost a long the way.  What was discovered during the last 8 months was that I had slipped into a sort of art rut that comes from lack of inspiration and energy.  This topped with the need to make something people would want to buy instead of the art that I was connected to made it difficult for me to even go to the studio to work.  That wasn’t what I wanted.

"Sketch Book Shot” 2011
by ~TallGuyKen

I didn’t want to make pieces for the sake of selling off.  It was a nice thought at the time and it may work for some.  For me though I could not be fully satisfied by that form of creating.  I needed a deeper connection to the works that I produced.  I wanted people to buy pieces that were apart of me as much as they were separate objects that reflected the wearers own personality.  With this in mind I worked mostly through my sketch book looking for that hidden spark.  I began to go back to the studio to created pieces that were more involved that the simple quick works from the year before.  Each piece I designed and produced brought me closer to the spark I so desperately sought.  My pieces and I were started to show again my passion for making art jewelry.

"Industrial Chime" 2011
by ~TallGuyKen

Towards the middle of last January I went to the ECU Metals Symposium in Greenville NC.  I was able to speak with professional metal smithers, professors, and students from all over the US.  This helped me discover the last hidden feeling I had been struggling to accept.  I was wanting to get my Masters in Fine Arts and exposure to new and inspiring artist.  I ignored this feeling for a long time, the last 3 years in fact, because it meant that I would have to leave the one person that I felt was my rock.  I can not ignore the desire to go off and find more of myself though.  It would only drive myself to misery.  Soon I will start another chapter in the life of an artist and start it by traveling to Phoenix AZ to visit my grandmother and Arizona State University.  It will be the third time I have been on that side of the US and may become my new home for the next 3 years.  So through all this rambling if you have made it this far I hope that at least you get that you shouldn’t ignore your feelings for too long.  You may miss a chance or delay what will eventually happen anyways.