Josh Warner
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| Josh Warner | |
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| Born | October 23, 1968 Los Angeles, California |
| Field | jewelry, sculpture, painting, ceramics |
| Movement | Dada, Celtic, Gothic |
| Patrons | Morissey, Usher, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Masterson, Rachel Ray, John Galliano |
| Influenced by | Beatrice Wood, Paul Soldner, David Furman, Paul Darrow (Painter) |
Josh Warner (October 23, 1968 - ) is an American artist and designer who is best known for his work in sterling silver and gold jewelry.
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[edit] Biography
Warner, a second generation Angeleno, at the age of 13, attended a wilderness school in the rural, mountain town of Thompson Falls, Montana. It was in this isolated environment that he first exhibited a strong inclination for the arts, exploring and developing his skills as both a painter and papermaker.
The remainder of his high school years were spent at Happy Valley School in Ojai, California, founded by Aldous Huxley, where he was inspired by the generous time and tutelage of famed ceramicist and Dada icon Beatrice Wood. Already an accomplished and collected painter, Warner was further educated at Pitzer College, where he was again inspired as an artist, this time by the likes of ceramicists Paul Soldner and David Furman and painter Paul Darrow.
Josh culled his entrepreneurial inspiration in part from the adventurous spirit of his family; in the face of the The Great Depression, grandfather Harry Warner opened up a highly successful candy store in downtown Los Angeles and father Buddy demonstrated the benefits of a hard days work for an honest wage with the founding of a prestigious Los Angeles based accounting firm.[1]
[edit] Career
Josh Warner first founded GOOD ART in August, 1990. What began as an enterprising cottage industry producing handmade jewelry for the then underground body piercing movement in a Venice Beach apartment, soon burgeoned into an ecclectic business in Santa Monica's Bayside District with more than fifty employees and customers in fifteen countries. Good Art was, at the time, one of the leaders in handmade body art jewelry. They produced high quality jewelry from stainless steel, titanium, precious metals and other exotic materials.
By the mid 1990s, GOOD ART was in full swing as the premiere manufacturer in the lucrative body jewelry industry. During this time, Josh was also responsible for the formation and development of Pacific Products, an offshoot of GOOD ART that incorporated new and unusual casting and machining techniques for a variety of jewelry and medical applications, and in the spring of 2000, negotiated the acquisition of Fractal Jewelry, a pioneer in the field of cast Titanium jewelry. All the while, Josh continued to independently produce custom and one-off jewelry, expanding his endeavors with limited and exclusive runs of bracelets, rings, pendants and accessories. These original designs were quickly swept up by Warner's friends who included many of Hollywood's established and burgeoning stars.[2]
As demand for his custom pieces increased and with GOOD ART in capable hands, Warner turned his attention to the full-time development of a his line of handmade, cast jewelry, incorporating precious metals and stones. Josh's foray into a decidedly more "organic" approach to jewelry was not without precedent. Having been educated in the most artistically inclined environments, his studies through college were devoted entirely to the realm of art, painting, sculpture, textiles and ceramics: All contributed to an informed sense of aesthetics and a critical eye for originality and individuality that Warner applied seamlessly to his line of jewelry. Incorporating more traditional, refined design elements often originating from firsthand observations of European Architecture,[3] with a nod to the high-end market, GOOD ART HLYWD caters to a most discriminating and creative clientele.
Where the demands of the body jewelry industry other small parts manufacturing require computer controlled machinery capable of a consistent, high-volume output, GOOD ART Fine Jewelry is entirely handmade, originating from either wood or wax carvings. The creation of single addition is often months in the making as the case with each GOOD ART HLYWD Zippo, originating from a single block of wax and gradually removing material to expose the art below. From concept to functional piece, the intrinsic value Warner's jewelry is realized the moment you put a piece in your hands. It's the notion of keeping on your person a work of art, for daily use and indulgent pleasure alike that seems to inspire each piece. Jewelry and accessories such as these rely on the individual craftsmanship and attention to detail rarely found today and maintained of intregrity to the craft. It's with this dedication that, between the Hollywood design studio and his foundry, Los Angeles Casting Company, in Downtown Los Angeles, Warner fashions each original piece by hand, personally overseeing each stage of production, from concept and the mechanics of initial design to the final polishing and packaging. Consequently, the output from GOOD ART HLYWD is extremely limited. While the jewelry presented at high-end retailers and custom variations are the order of the day, commissions of hundreds of pieces, generally as exclusive gifts by the likes of Hollywood's elite, are also all produced in house, all the while maintaining a standard of quality established more than 15 years ago.
[edit] Influences and patrons
Throughout his life Josh Warner has been intimately connected with and surrounded by some of the most creative individuals of the last 50 years, all of who continue to reach out with great loyalty and contribution to his artistic pursuits. The results of such influences and the interpretations of a fortunate and capable artist are presented through the work of GOOD ART HLYWD.
Josh Warner's jewelry has been seen on Morissey, Usher, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Masterson, Rachel Ray, John Galliano as well as many others.
