Today we’d like to introduce you to Edward McCartney.
Edward, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My family landed in Houston in 1977 after a five year stint in London, England, where my father had been transferred. I was part of the first graduating class of Kingwood High School and attended Texas A & M University and later the Art Institute of Houston. I began my career as an interior designer in Houston, TX and San Francisco, CA specializing in the design of salons and spas and their custom furnishings and mill-work. From San Francisco, I moved to Toronto, ON, Canada, where I took my first metalsmithing course at George Brown University. I made the permanent move back to Houston in 1999, where I continued my art education at the Glassell School of Art, MFAH. I have been a working art jeweler and artist in Houston for twenty years now. I am currently the treasurer of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, having been president of the board and a former participant in their artist in the residency program. My work has been shown and collected nationally and internationally and is included in many private and public collections, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Arts and Design, NY, NY, the City of Houston, George Bush International Airport. I currently represented by three galleries, Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Inc, Upper Kirby, Houston, High Gloss, Uptown Park, Houston, and CamibArt, Austin, TX.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road has not always been smooth. I was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and with AIDS in 1994. It has been a slow climb back to health with HIV coloring my life decisions, or sometimes lack thereof, for more than 30 years. Having always been creative, the decision to define my career in the fine arts as a professional artist didn’t seem too much of a stretch. Being a part of the local arts community has been of the utmost help in my career development. I have taken classes continually at the Glassell School of Art, MFAH, for the past 20 years and have found the mentoring of my professors and the kinship of fellow artists invaluable. My time as a resident and board service with the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft has also opened many doors. It is the connections with people in the arts community that have helped to make the difference. I have been a part of the Houston Metal Arts Guild, locally, and the Society of North American Goldsmiths, nationally. I said, “yes”, to every opportunity in my early years. I have always thought of my artistic expression as not only a passion but as a profession and have acted accordingly.
Most galleries and arts organizations prefer to work with artists who treat their work and them with professionalism. As I have many interests, fine skills over a broad range, a sprawling attention span, and a desire for perfection, it has not always been easy to classify me and my work. My work is diverse in its conceptual range and its media varies. I like to have a sense of play in my work. The irony is not lost on me that much of my work is about classification and order, yet I eschew classification and pigeon holing of myself.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am most proud of the consistency of my making over the last twenty years and the relationships built with people in mutual support, gallery owners, my commissioning clients of custom jewelry, patrons who have supported my more challenging creations, to vendors, suppliers, and other makers who all help to make my work happens. I am utmost proud of my life partner of 14 years, David Gooding, without whose support in branding, promotion, marketing, and doing all the things I don’t want to do, I would not be where I am today.
Some of my specialties include making mates to lost earrings. I have a series called The Lost Earring Project devoted to this endeavor I am also known for taking the jewelry tailings of past relationships and inheritances that clients don’t wear and re-fashioning them into jewelry pieces that they will. My solo gallery shows are known for their thought-provoking exuberance over a wide spectrum of media and form. I am also proud that I am able to create sculpture, collage, assemblages, jewelry and small metal works and to do them well. One of my greatest joys is teaching metal fold-forming techniques to 4th and 5th graders each summer at Bayou Bend, MFAH’s summer history camp and fused sterling pendant techniques to their adult classes.
What were you like growing up?
As a child we moved almost every two years when my father was transferred to another position and place in the oil business. I think it helped me to form a self reliance, a sense of adventure, and wanderlust. I believe that I was of a happy disposition and of a creative one. I spent a great deal of time by myself making things, building with Lego, Tinker-Toys, and my Erector Set. To this day, I enjoy my own company, and thus the solitude of my studio practice. My maternal grandfather was a carpenter for the navy and he had a fantastic wood working studio where he would let me work. He made beautiful furniture. My paternal grandmother had a hair salon and was the town florist and would let me make arrangements and carve floral foam into fanciful creations. I loved art classes and when the teacher told us to bring one of our father’s old dress shirts to school to wear as a smock because we were going to paint, well, I was in heaven. When my mother was knitting, needle pointing, or embroidering, I would be asked her to teach me. She did, and I made myself a long Dr. Who type scarf and my father a brown one which he wore dutifully and I needle pointed two small giraffes that were framed and still hang in my childhood bedroom.
When my paternal grandmother and great grandmothers were quilting or cooking, I asked them to teach me and they did. I still have a love for all of these efforts today and have become quite a good chef, even once considering it professionally. In my teens, I was quite a go-getter. Simultaneously, I was the street’s yard boy, pet sitter, child sitter, house sitter, and I worked sacking groceries at the grocery store, with a sideline of collecting glass bottles from all the house building sites to return to the store for the bottle redemption return fee. I also cooked elaborate dinners for my parent’s dinner parties and even hired out to cater dinner parties for their friends.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1032 W Gardener Street
Houston, TX 77009 - Website: https://www.edwardlanemccartney.com/
- Phone: 7132916713
- Email: edwardmccartney@att.net
- Facebook: Edward McCartney
Image Credit:
Edward Lane McCartney
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