On Wednesday, August, 23^rd New Moon successfully held their monthly Wine & Art Night and over a hundred people attended this event.  What Carol, the owner, wanted to do was bridge the gap between the bar crowd and the art and wine crowd and given the attendees—she accomplished her goal.  Carol has been and is well known within the community as a wine connoisseur and loves giving the opportunity to our community to expand our horizons.  

Carol also helped expand our horizons by bringing in local artist—Harmony Jones.  Harmony has been living in our South Florida community for a couple of years now after being brought to us through her girlfriend’s former job.  So, I guess the stars were in alignment and now we can claim her as one of ours.   

Ms. Jones was brought up in the Pacific Northwest and spent many years in Seattle to where she not only learned about herself but about what is important to her craft—recycling. Most of her multimedia work and even some of her paintings utilize some sort of recycled materials.  These pieces, after they were personally explained had new meaning, interest, and bits of pieces of things that were scraps of other’s ingredients.  Barely anything is left to waste and even the minutest scrap can be used for three pieces—if the pattern and color fit.  Harmony showed me a piece where she cut a simple matchbook with a squiggly brown and gold pattern and expanded it to twice the size and filled in the space with other materials, only to use what is left over for another piece!  What is important to know about Harmony is that she is not only a multimedia artist but also a creative sculptor as well with two pieces one that was on the buffet table called Atlantis which was a bust of a woman and the other, which was hanging by the infamous Lennon picture, is Breaking Through Steel and Wood which is actually made from the metal binding strips used on large crates and pallets and an old wooden picture frame.  Who would have thought?  Well, wherever it is hung and against whichever wall, if hung against color—it will come alive and more pronounced. 

Where Harmony obtains most of her materials is through two local recycling or reclaiming stores that cater to the odd and unique.  One being Scrap in West Palm and the other being Habitat and can be located on Broward Blvd in Ft. Lauderdale.  We talked about how there are literally hundreds of websites and businesses that go in and reclaim certain objects before a place is sold or demolished.  She loves the most intricate and obscure items and when explaining one of my favorite pieces Campfire Chronicles she told me that she found this piece of rusted metal and then built everything around it all the while making sure that it was the focus of the piece.  What is interesting to find out is that some of the other layers behind the metal is actually really old canvas on cardboard paintings where the backs are stained, ripped, or partially destroyed—all within the brown family.  Harmony is a big fan of layers, textures, and colors and this is event in especially this piece.  

Interesting fact to know is that on her nightstand, she has a sketchbook so that either before or after sleeping she has the tools nearby so that thoughts, feelings, or images are not wasted and actually gets many of her visions for her work from sleep.  Also, with a lot of her work, she is committed and has literally become part of her work through misuse of an Exacto knife!   She loves collecting things and is always thinking about future projects.  She feels that they are passageways to her soul and connecting to her audience through her work.  If you can find, there is usually one key element within each piece that she feels links her to it and can be as simple as a piece of scrap metal or as hidden as using the back of a silkscreen box as a canvas.  These are the things that make up Harmony Jones. 

Another collection that I loved is her Mermaids which are a series of shapes of females, either with or without heads that can be Mermaids or as I first thought, evening gowns with fish tails.  Harmony explained that she takes the leftover paint from her palate and then, through a process of adding water and separating the semi-dried paint from the board, takes it out and molds it as if it were clay, then places it on the piece creating multicolored masterpieces.   

While meeting with Ms. Jones and her partner, I discovered that she is a well-known local artist and has had her Campfire Chronicles shown at ArtServe, is showing at Beyond Décor Gallery in Palm Beach, Aquarian Age Gallery and The Tangerine Boutique in Boca Raton, but also in Family and Art/Entertainment Law Offices on Lincoln Road in South Beach.  Next month she will be a Featured Artist in Flavor Magazine and is participating in A Day to Remember:  For Rock-N-Art which will be held Saturday, September 23^rd at The Uncommon Gallery at 3159-A East Atlantic Blvd. and can be contacted at 954*336-4305.  Harmony Jones is an amazing individual, a new professional friend and you should come out and meet her, it’s worth your while.  She can be contacted at harmonyjonescreates@yahoo.com or through her website, www.harmonyjones.org.