Spontaneity And Simplicity

Spark Jeweler’s Imagination

By Nancy K. Crevier

Newtown resident, Manhattan real estate sales person, sailor, sculptor, painter, poet, obstetrician and Doctor of Psychiatry, Dr Jonathan Greenfield has traded in his previous lives for one that he feels is truly his calling, that of a jeweler. Working in precious metals and stones, Dr Greenfield has dedicated the last three and a half years to the design and creation of several lines of fine jewelry.

“I’ve loved art since I was a little kid,” said Dr Greenfield recently. That love led him to Alfred University in New York where he was involved in the ceramics art program and where he refined his painting techniques, and to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he delved into 3-D art courses.

Following stints as an architect’s assistant and a commercial real estate salesperson in Manhattan after college, and a period in which he focused on his painting as a source of income, Dr Greenfield decided that he might never be able to support himself in the world of art and pursued another passion, that of medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Tel Aviv in 1981, where he also met his wife, Amy. Returning to the States, he delivered nearly 500 babies as part of the obstetrics and gynecology staff at Danbury Hospital in the mid-1980s before going into the practice of psychiatry.

All through his medical career, Dr Greenfield remained involved in art, using it as a source of relaxation and as a release of creativity. In 2005, he made the decision to close his private psychiatry practices in Newtown and New Canaan to focus on jewelry.

“I kind of had a tiny epiphany one day. I had been working on a piece in gold and at the last moment, ruined it. I realized that in medicine, if I make a mistake the consequences could be so much more dire [than a mistake in creating jewelry], so why not do something more creative and fun?” explained Dr Greenfield.

Since making that decision, Dr Greenfield has opened a studio and storefront in Westport, located at 263 Riverside Avenue, and has been accepted into several fine arts and crafts shows, including the fall show at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.

“Getting into a juried show is like getting into an Ivy League college,” said Dr Greenfield. “They accept about one in ten artists.”

His medical background has definitely influenced his art, said Dr Greenfield. “In psychiatry, when a person comes for help they not only want symptom relief, they want to become unencumbered from all that holds them back, I think,” he explained.

One of his jewelry lines in particular, “Figures in Motion,” best expresses that belief. “You are in the moment and connect to the unencumbered. That’s what my pieces project, I hope.”

“I try to do it as simply as I can, whatever my message is,” said Dr Greenfield.

His designs are simple. The fluid lines of the limited edition or one-of-a-kind pieces flow in joyous movement, the silver and gold reflecting the light. One of the pieces, a tightrope walker, exemplifies the connection between medicine and art.

“It is a metaphor for lots of situations in which we find ourselves in life,” Dr Greenfield said. A number of the pieces in this line also contain an orb or “solar disc,” as Dr Greenfield calls it, a symbol that he feels “puts perspective on us. It puts us in a place in this world.”

Some of the “Figures in Motion” are cast, some are cut and soldered, but all begin as designs on paper first, said Dr Greenfield. Then, one piece can take up to two weeks to sculpt and another three days to create. Bracelets in particular can be time-consuming.

In his artist’s statement, Dr Greenfield casts more light on his inspiration for these graceful pieces saying, “In my work I strive to portray simply in form that which is exceedingly complex to express in words.”

“Figures in Motion” works are created from 18-karat gold, sterling or pure silver, or a combination of the precious metals.

The other two lines of jewelry for which Dr Greenfield is best known are his “Twist and Spark” and “Sea Silver” collections. The former combines silver and 18-karat or 22-karat gold with stones that range from sea glass washed up on the shore to garnet, agates, topaz, fire opals, and diamonds.

“I use stones not for their value,” said Dr Greenfield, “but for what they look like.”

Earrings, bracelets, pendants, and rings make up this line of jewelry that again echoes the simplicity Dr Greenfield strives for in his creation process.

Equally simple and stunning in yet a different way are the pieces that make up “Sea Silver.” Silver fused to silver, each work in this series is unplanned, said Dr Greenfield. “I create it as I work.”

His wife and children, Stephanie, 19, and Benjamin, 17, have all been recipients of his creativity, but the freeform pieces of “Sea Silver” were the result of wishing to create a piece to please his daughter, said Dr Greenfield. They tend to appeal more to a younger audience, he feels, and are more affordable than the other works of gold and precious stones, which Dr Greenfield says fall into a category of special purchases.

“I try to do it as simply as I can, whatever my message is,” said Dr Greenfield.

To “eclipse the chaos and emerge with something elemental and sublime,” the jewelry can be viewed online at JonathanGreenfield.com or at the studio in Westport, which is usually open from 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday. To visit by appointment contact Dr Greenfield at 270-6655.