Joe Korth
Joe Korth is an emerging jewelry artist and metalsmith from Denver, Colorado. He was born in Berkeley, California in 1979. His first exposure to jewelry creation was in a high school art class. Joe continued his education at Eastern Michigan University where he earned a B.A. with a dual major in Philosophy and Literature. After completing his degree in 2002, he moved to Denver and began to explore his love for the arts. He has devoted himself completely to jewelry since 2004. Currently he is working as an instructor at the Clear Creek Academy, teaching the Introduction and Intermediate level Silversmithing classes as well as workshops in Chainmaking and Jewelry Photography.
Artist Statement
Not a day goes by that I don’t think about jewelry, a piece I’m making or a
design I’m developing. Many times it’s the last thing I think about before I go
to sleep, and the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning. At
some point in time, it ceased to be what I did and started to be who I am.
One thing I’ve learned about myself through the course of my life is that I love
to work with my hands. When I was a boy, I would go with my mom to thrift stores
and buy machines that were no longer working. They took on a variety of faces:
cameras, adding machines, televisions, computers, and even once a lawnmower. I
would go home and take these machines apart, sometimes by force if I couldn’t
figure them out. I didn’t have the knowledge to create things with my hands at
this young age, so instead I deconstructed things.
Along with this love of using my hands, I have always had a passion for
beautiful things. It doesn’t matter what the medium is, painting, poetry,
literature, music, if it is beautiful and pleasing to my soul, I love it.
My jewelry streams directly from these two sources: a need to use my hands, and
a love for all that is beautiful.
My work is simple in design, often utilizing basic geometric shapes and lines.
The materials that I use, metals, stone, and wood, all have immense inherent
beauty. For me, the process of creating a piece of art is about exposing this
beauty without obscuring it with overly complex or contrived designs of my own.
There’s nothing like polishing a piece after all the hard work has been done and
seeing firsthand the beauty of the work emerge from its cocoon of imperfection.
I strive for the highest level of excellence and precision in my craftsmanship.
Creating art is a spiritual endeavor, and I do my best to make my art pleasing
not only to the eye but to the soul as well. In this way, artist and viewer are
able to access a deep and meaningful place of spiritual connection with each
other, with themselves, and with the world around them.
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