Kt Carney: Artist and Educator
To work in steel is to embrace a substance that yields minimally to human touch. When I draw upon my tools of heat and pressure, the steel becomes more compliant. Whatever form I’m working on, whether it is a figure, an object, or something in between, the steel offers connections between the concept and the artwork. Sometimes it is a linear progression as I work from sketches and develop the piece three dimensionally. More often, though, the steel offers multiple options for processing the idea at hand. Those are the times when my work embodies a spirit derived from me and expressed visually in metal.
In addition to steel, I also work in mixed media (wood, clay, and fibers) and found/upcycled collected items. Combining disparate materials to the point of cohesiveness and finding the balance among the various substances to express a unified concept becomes the objective.
Recurrent themes in my recent work include the concept of revealing and concealing and its relationship to identity, visual puns, and symbolic histories. My inspiration to create comes from my observations of my surroundings, including stuff which relates to the body, my reflections on conversations and events, and my need to express those reflections in a three dimensional space.