What does the future hold for my art?

And what of the future of David A. Martin Jewelry?
What do i see coming out of Earthship Studio in the coming year?

Well, hopefully more of the same, that is, more of the new!

I have been exclusively designing and fabricating my own jewelry in my own studio for a year now. It's been a good year, a very creative time. So i see myself making more unique one of a kind pieces. I'm also working on a few designs which will require less intricate fabrication and cut back on my time. I'm looking to add a line of designs that are less expensive and in a fashion, more replicable to reach a broader customer base. My hope in doing this is to create more abundance and a wider arena for greater expression and connectivity in the art world which i hope translates into making a higher percentage of my living through artistic creativity.

I also have a show in 2010 at the Sangre De Christo Arts and Conference Center in Pueblo, Colorado with local artists Randy Wix and Justin Reddick. They are multi-media modern abstract painters who have asked me to compliment their work with some of my own. I'm actually not thinking of using jewelry as my medium for that show, but have been working with some designs for wall pieces, but still integrating metal and stone. The working theme of the show, currently, is The Industrial Revolution, so it should be fun. I'd like to work in some fossils and found metal, silver and ciefenite.

I have a patchwork quilt of a novel i'd like to tighten up and get a decent first draft of too this year.

Mobile Metals Program

Last year I assisted Michael Boyd with the Mobile Metals Program, which takes our love of metalsmithing into the public and charter schools arts classes.

It was a great trip out of town and teaching these kids a new skill was very satisfying. To see there eyes light up as they have an aha moment when the solder flows at just the right heat and the two ends of their silver ring come together and become one was something i'll never forget.

It's important to show these kids that beyond the realm of school subjects there are so many other opportunities for careers and artistic expression. Metal working can be a place where the mechanically minded kids find a love of crafting and creating something with the materials they are familiar with in other applications. The artsy kids find a common ground with the gearheads and vicaversa when they both arrive at a place of creation. The act of creating something in the mind and then acquiring the skills to manifest those ideas in the physical world is a powerfully attractive thing to a wide swath of humanity.

You can see the cogs in motion as they talk about their ideas for other projects, many of which are currently beyond their skill level. But, to me, it's this inspiration and desire to learn and figure it out, to create, which is satisfying.

To see kids excited about something healthy and constructive these days is more than refreshing. It renews my faith in the creative and cooperative future of humanity.

Chop wood, carry water.

Today is a cold day here in Southern Colorado. The morning brought with it a fog which turned out to be a freezing mist, or micro-snow of some form. Any work done in the studio would require me to start a fire.

When i got into the studio this morning i realized that all of my water was frozen and so i was going to have to carry water from the house out here to the studio if i was going to be polishing any stones. I will then warm this water on the small 1950's U.S. Army stove . . . once i get that fire going.

I'm a little low on firewood this year as the inspiration to install the little stove in the studio came late in Autumn and i had not prepared a supply of wood. I have been going through the supply of wood from my little greenhouse, (mostly used for warming the gathering of friends during the winter celebrations) fairly quickly. I enjoy the task of making kindling and starting the fire, it is a somewhat mundane ritual rich with memory for me.

Today this all reminds me of an old Zen saying, "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water." Chopping the wood and carrying the water, tasks that are not always fun, especially when the fingers are cold and stiff. These things at first seem like mundane tasks, work that is not as fun or satisfying as the making of art. But these things are just as important, and are in fact, part of making jewelry, not something separate.

I could easily fall into a loathing about the parts of my life which seem like "work" and be dreaming of being somewhere else warmer and doing something else more satisfying or fun.
But the truth is, that when i do these other things it is all part of the whole of my life. I try to be mindful that what i am doing now is every bit as important as any other part of my life's work.
Without letting my mind wander too far, I need to be grateful for all the circumstances that put me where I am that moment with that hatchet in my cold hand and that water in the bucket on its way to the studio.

When i look at some pieces of jewelry, I can remember the day i made some of them. I can not only see the stones and the story of my acquisition of them, the silver and the process of metal working, but also the chopping of wood and the carrying of water.

When I am open to the awareness of the mundane tasks in my life and how they are connected to my artwork and my intentions, those tasks become lighter. When I am able to be in the moment, I no longer feel compelled to watch the clock or dwell in feelings of resentment for the work at hand.

Wood is chopped.

Water is carried.

Life happens.