Enough? Can we all get over ourselves, now? If jewelry is art, it's art. If jewelry is not art, it's not art. It's just a little pond so people can pretend to be big fish, that's all."
Another way to look at it is how we look for validation for what we
do and how we interpret what we do and make a connection to who we
are. If we feel supported from within we have an internal validation
for our value and worth. Manipulating materials gives satisfaction
but is not our identity. If one’s self worth is determined by what
we do, then we are successful or a failure depending on how a project
turns out. If one does not have a strong sense of self, one might
try to mentally categorize, analyze, compare what one does to look
for that validation externally. Sometimes a customer says “You are an
artist” and I could not care less about that. What I see myself as
is a funky human expressing my creativity as a form of therapy to
keep myself as sane as I can be. I have a good design sense and good
hand eye coordination and I can make my living this way and I am
blessed for this. That’s about it.
Richard Hart