Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Diamond.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jeremy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
What people wear and why has always been something that really captivated me. When I was a teenager, I used to think I would end up as a theatrical costume designer, but that never really panned out. In my first year and a half of college, I ended up bouncing around different classes and majors looking for something I could really sink my teeth into. Around that time, I took an introductory jewelry class at Central Texas College (a community college about an hour north of Austin), and I had a moment where I sat back and realized “this is what I’m gonna do for the rest of my life.” For me, jewelry existed at the intersection of fashion and what I understood art to be. I took jewelry classes at community college for about a year before my professor pointed me towards the metalsmithing and jewelry program at the University of North Texas, where I graduated with my BFA this past spring. Since moving to the DFW, I’ve found a passion for interdisciplinary art that has made what I do a lot less straightforward, but a lot more fulfilling.
Has it been a smooth road?
I’ve definitely had some struggles along the way. I think that that’s really an inherent part of the game, though. I was put off of theatrical costume by some really messed up experiences with racism in school and theatre when I was younger. That experience changed the course of my life entirely, and in roundabout way, it’s what brought me to jewelry and visual art. Lately, though, the bulk of my challenges have been internal. I’m really driven to improve as an artist all the time, and I sort of live for my work. A lot of the time, this leads to me putting a lot of pressure on myself and sometimes putting my work ahead of my well-being.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I like to think of my work as something between contemporary art jewelry and wearable sculpture, but performance and interactive art are avenues that I’ve been interested in lately as well. The goal of individual artworks can vary, but my work generally focuses on the relationships we all have with our own bodies. Our understanding of our bodies is strongly tied to our understanding of ourselves as people, and the context of the society we live in. I want everybody who interacts with my work to reflect on how they relate to their own bodies and how they interact with the world around them. To that end, it’s incredibly important that everything I make engages the wearer’s body in very specific ways, while also transforming that body into a spectacle for the viewer.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think that proximity to Dallas (or any major city, for that matter) is a double-edged sword for artists. Being in close proximity to other people and important cultural centers helps people become better artists. At the same time, though, living in or around big cities can be very expensive, and opportunities for artists (especially artists such as myself who work primarily in academia) are limited all over the country, so staying in one place for a long time isn’t always a viable option.
Contact Info:
- Website: jeremydiamondmetalsmith.com
- Email: jeremydiamondmetalsmith@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremydiamondmetalsmith/
Image Credit:
Zuyva Sevilla, Diana Rojas
Suggest a story: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
