Artist: Kelly Guidry
Craft Medium: Mixed Media
Artist Statement
My work is a combination of both subtractive and constructive sculpture. I use the chainsaw and other power tools to cut and burn wood, and welding equipment to bend and weld metal. My use of the tools is sometimes unorthodox and my techniques are constantly in a state of reinvention.
The first stage is like a 3-dimensional rough sketch. I usually make preliminary drawings but I am often influenced by the suggestive shape and nature of the wood. Once I've cut the basic form, I move through a series of progressively less powerful saws, sanders and grinders to refine the shape. To add definition, I burn the wood with an acetylene torch, sand it and apply several coats of wood sealer.
After the sealer is dry, I begin applying a number of surface treatments. I use a brush technique with spray paint then draw out designs in pencil and add intricate detailing with low-relief rotary tool work, wood burning and additions of nails, beads, braided fiber, hammered copper, etc.
Wings, fins and other forms that require wide, flat surfaces lend themselves well to the use of sheet copper. I use metal shears to cut the shape then hammer it to add contour and texture. I often alter the copper with some combination of annealing, paint, patina or low heat welding spatter to provide variation and complexity.
Welded metal is incorporated for both structural reinforcement and aesthetic value. Oil field scrap metal, plate, pipe, rod and re-bar make up support frames for hanging and mounting, but function is never without form. The metal is always fashioned to compliment the figure and is often added just for the sake of contrasting material.
Artist Works
Artist Biography
I was born and raised in Lafayette La. My mother is a seamstress specializing in elaborate Mardi Gras costumes and her parents were both artistically inclined as well. Gran-Gran worked in cast metal and Mimi created large scale intricate works of braided fiber. I was never particularly interested in or good at sports or much of anything else, but I was always drawing and making strange little things out of whatever material I could get my hands on. I have always been an artist of sorts but it wasn't until college that I discovered my true medium.
"I think everyone has a true nature that coincides with his or her natural talents. Half of the trick is discovering what your true nature is, the other half is remaining true to it."
I stumbled upon mine in the spring of ‘92. I was enrolled as an Advertising Design major at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette when I attended my first sculpture class. I loved it immediately, and sculpture soon became my unofficial minor. It was not long before I had evolved from the mallet and chisel to the use of the chainsaw. One of my instructors, Mark Guilbeaux, introduced me to welding and encouraged me to push the scale of my work. I developed a rough-edged style I call “Modern Primitive” because of the use of modern motor and engine driven tools to execute concepts inspired by the art of primitive cultures.
I might have changed my major to sculpture, but I was trying to be practical, and
Advertising was a practical compromise between art and reality. After graduation I worked at a small local Ad Agency for three years. I was a good designer, but I had no real passion for the work. I considered changing jobs but every other practical option only seemed worse than what I was already doing. Discontent turned to frustration and finally maddening depression. Once I was good and crazy, it suddenly all made sense.
I was fighting my true nature. I was not a designer wishing to be a sculptor, I was a sculptor pretending to be a designer because that is what I thought the practical world expected of me. Then I simply stopped pretending.
Location: 108 Van Buren St. Breaux Bridge, LA 70517
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