One of my all-time favorite artists is the incomparable Art Smith. Born in Cuba to Jamaican parents in 1917, the family immigrated to New York when Smith was three years. Smith was an artistic child and won a scholarship to the Cooper Union where he studied sculpture and commercial art. After graduating in 1940, Smith took jewelry classes at New York University where he met renowned African-American jeweler Winifred Mason. Smith would go on to work with Mason in her studio in Greenwich Village before striking out on his own. A friend of other Black performing artists including Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne, his connections in the art world led to more commissions. Smith began designing sculptural jewelry for Black dance companies which fostered his large-format jewelry for which he is most prized. He also established relationships with department stores and was featured in editorials in Vogue and the New Yorker. Sadly, by the 1970s his health began to decline and he passed away in 1982. His influence on the Studio jewelry movement in American can’t be overstated, his designs remain some of the most artistic and sculptural of all his peers while retaining comfort and wearability sometimes lacking in Studio jewelry.

A piece of jewelry is in a sense an object that is not complete in itself. Jewelry is a ‘what is it?’ until you relate it to the body. The body is a component in design just as air and space are. Like line, form, and color, the body is a material to work with. It is one of the basic inspirations in creating form.