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About Kevina

Howard County

A current resident of Howard County who has travelled a long way. I am a wife, a parent, a teacher, a daughter, an immigrant and since a very young age have considered myself an artist. However, throughout my life, being an artist has played second fiddle to the other roles. At least until now as I fully embrace this artistic role. While I have always considered myself an artist it is difficult to maintain a consistent studio pactice when life's other roles demand so much time and attention. Now that... more

Bog Bodies in Bronze

My curiousity about bog bodies is based in trying to understand how these people, although long gone from this earth, are still here with us 'in the flesh'.
I began my study by observing and sketching the bodies in museums, Tollund Man, Graubelle Man in Denmark and Germany, Cloney Cavan Man, and several others in the National Museum of Ireland.
After sketching, I decided that I needed to create three-dimensional versions and began to explore how I could do that authentically. I choose to cast them in bronze because of it's permanance. Moreover, this process parallels the life cycle of the bog body. The wax model when finished is  buried in several layers of sand and scilica  as it is dipped, dried and repeated. This builds up a heavy coating over time and the wax body is completely encased in layers. This is  similar to how the body in the bog is buried under several layers of turf over a period of time. 
When the bog body gets discovered and reintroduced into the world the body is still there, it has changed and yet it is the same person. The wax model gets put in a burn out chamber and the wax is removed and then bronze poured into the casing. When cool the casing is then broken away to reveal the bronze bog body. In a similar way the actual bog body is buried in the bog (I equate this with the burn out chamber) but people don't know where they are until they are suddenly discovered and then all the archeologist come aboard and spend their time researching and cleaning the body.
The cleaning and presenting the bronze sculpture can be compared to this latter process.
NOTE:
I plan to make some visuals with left over casings from the bronze cast process and in some of my current pieces I have surrounded them with turf from the bogs of Ireland.

  • Emerging

    Bronze, bas-relief head
    This bog body is created in wax first and then cast is bronze. The aim here is to have the body and bog land appear as one with the head emerging gradually from it's environment.
  • Seven

    Pinecones modeled in wax and then cast. On wooden base
    Seven Deadly Sins, bronze cast pinecones.

Cone Heads

In an attempt to connect location I began to collect pine cones to use in my art. Everywhere I go I try to collect a pine cone, Elkridge, Columbia, Ireland and so on. These I cover with wax and combine with other materials to make unique faces, mostly based on skulls.

During my college years in Ireland I had the opportunity to spend a summer in Paris and one of the highlights of that trip was visiting the Catacombs. I have always been interested in bones and skulls and I was completely facinated by being able to walk through these caverns full of arranged skulls and bones. When I returned to college that fall I began a  very large sculpture based on this experience. It consisted of a layering of cut up branches and chestnuts but it became too much and I never finished it. I remember my professor suggesting that I do a little each day in order to accomplish this task. I regret not finishing it, so this is attempt number two, this time using pine cones and wax.

Following my professor's  advice from long ago, I set about creating one pinecone head a day or thirty a month. I did for several month and experiments with stacking them.
Some  arrangments I cast in are bronze  and some arranged by stacking and/or hanging with hand knitted ropes.

These are works in progress building towards an installation where I hope to build a tunnel-like structure that one can walk through in order to recreate my experience in Paris.

I returned to see this place with my family a few years ago and it is still intrigues me.

Found Object paintings

Creating  mixed media pieces based on items I have found in my enviroment has become a way for me to connect the past with the present.  At first, I found myself draw to mostly natural objects but as time passed I began collecting manufactured items too.
These artworks are influenced by objects/people who have completed their useful lives. This could be a body found in the bog in Ireland having been buried there for several years or merely a pine cone that has just dropped from a tree. It is about place, accident, and my finding it, to elevate it to a status of importance.

  • Perpetual Balance

    Uses found objects from around Howard Co.
    While a skull is a reminder of our mortality it is also a symbol of transformation and change. The bird skulls, in different states of decay, symbolize the need to maintain our relationship with nature and keep it in balance. While I embrace all things ancient in my artwork I try to find ways to balance this with contemporary life. To this end I usematerials from my everyday travels as inspirations in creating.
  • EC Jewel.JPG

    Created with gesso, acrylic paint and found rocks.

Figure drawing and sculpture

This section consists of figure drawings, paintings and wax sculptures created during figure drawing sessions at various locations (Ho Co Center for the Arts, MICA, Painting School in Baltimore. Figure drawing gives me time to just relax and draw/sculpt, practice my craft without being too concerned with creating finished pieces.
Sometimes these works do go on to be included in finished pieces and sometimes they can become a stand alone pieces. This is particularly true of the wax figures.

Connect with Kevina

Kevina's Curated Collection

View Kevina's favorite works from other Baker Artists