From Eldorado, Texas
Artist Statement:
Influenced by tribal art, science fiction notions, and the elusive remnants of dreams, my work explores the familiar while offering sub rosa glimpses of what could be commonplace in another world, if we might only be allowed to visit.
My work glorifies the aesthetic of the found; my focus is primarily on steel.
Steel is the most widely used and most recycled material on the planet; steel is resilient yet vulnerable. We can leave our mark on steel. But over time, our marks can be forgotten, discarded, and erased.
Found steel can be transformed into new raw material, but it can also be appreciated and elevated in its discovered state.
I find inspiration in exploring the things that modern society has overlooked and discarded during the never-ending march toward perceived progress.
Forging, assemblage, arc welding, and patination are the processes that dominate my practice.
Artist Biography:
Kevin Stanford is a multimedia artist/blacksmith based in Eldorado, Texas, originally from Southern California. Kevin has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from University of Northern Colorado, with a field emphasis on botany and zoology. Kevin took his blacksmithing intro course at ACC in 1999, and for the most part is self-taught. In the last few years, he has traveled with the goal of spending time with prominent and up-and-coming artist blacksmiths, participating in collaborative sculpture sessions, taking hands-on sculpture courses, demonstrating non-traditional steel manipulation for beginning blacksmiths, and visiting and talking to local smiths. Kevin’s passion is exploring non-traditional shapes in forged steel using traditional blacksmith techniques and incorporating found objects in his sculpture.