Kay West

Maker

I’m old. The bad thing about this is that I’m slowing down—maybe that’s not such a bad thing. The GOOD thing is that over my lifetime I’ve played with a lot of different art mediums, different styles, different color palettes, in many different places; enjoyed pushing the art envelope in college, taken a lot of different workshops since then, dinked around on my own, making a lot of mistakes and stumbling across incredible art serendipity. My leanings are eclectic, and I like it that way.

Photography: I don't have sophisticated, cutting edge digital equipment. And I don't pretend to have and use other than rudimentary understanding of aperture and f-stops. I seldom use flash. All of the photographs in this display have been taken with a smart phone camera. Any editing was done with the iPhone tools.

There's something about isolating a scene, person or object that will change in some way the instant after I snap the photograph that makes my spine tingle—in a good way. Rust and deterioration are chronicling passing time. I like that I’m recording this natural process.

Jewelry: Well, remember what I said about being eclectic? Along with recording the passage of time, I also enjoy texture and texturing metal and making wearable art from metal I’ve hand-textured. I also incorporate the colors and textures of natural stones; they too have been formed over time.

Thank goodness my curiosity is as strong and insatiable today as it was decades ago!