In the 1980s and 1990s many jewelers used their refined technical skills to create narrative and figurative jewelry. William Harper sees his work as an expression of his emotions, sexuality, and spirituality. He uses enamel to create evocative painterly effects, and by avoiding high-gloss surfaces, he allows viewers to see deeply into the translucent material, as if into his inner world. In the brooch titled Grotesque Self-Portrait of the Artist as the Goddess Kali, Harper interprets the Hindu deity Kali as a force for both creative energy (represented by the color red) and of all-consuming destruction (the color black), combined with references to both male and female Hindu sexual symbols.

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