Kate Emond
Kate’s solar panel artwork titled “Prevail” is open for auction until January 24th. Click here to place a bid.
Montana native Kate Emond is a Sheridan, WY resident who learned at an early age to transform objects from something old into something new. Learning to sew at 8 years old brought many new curiosities, like how things worked mechanically.
Later in life she would turn these curiosities into many skills, like being able to adapt to new processes easily and work with many varied materials and processes. Furthering these skills, she graduated from Northwest Community College with an Associates of Applied Science in Engineering Technology and a Certificate of Completion in the Visual Arts in the spring of 2022. These two degrees reinforce the rules of the creative mind and the analytical mind. Being able to work in both areas together at once brings a uniqueness to each one-of-a-kind piece.
She lives in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountain’s in Sheridan WY with her husband and 3 children.
Background piece (Untitled) was made using a Mig welder, cutting torch, grinder, and plasma cutter. The petrified wood is used because the energy it creates has a calming effect on the holder connecting them to the past and the future. It also has been said to increase one's perseverance and patience. The youngest petrified rock from the rocky mountain region is 15 million years old. The rim used to support the rock is the same rims that supported white settlers' wagons to come west and forever change the way the native people would live. The piece of wood felloe represents how the main piece that creates a bond and protects the entirety of the person can also be the one carried. The anthropometric shape and delicate hold allows the viewer to believe there is the possibility of growth and change in people.
The foreground piece (Unity) is a structure created using a Mig welder, cutting torch, grinder, and a stock roller. The brown color represents the earth's soil. The rock inside is a sandstone, representing the bond between family members. The break in the rocks represents hardships that families often have and the opportunity for mending. The coiled rod around each piece represents the things and people that help move families back together and temporarily hold and support them. The lanceolate shape of the rock inside is a depiction of a reversed teardrop, meaning the pain caused can be reversed and the family can be united and strong again. The spring used represents the sturdy backbone of every relationship.
Kate’s Statement
Driving around the rural farming community you see old farm machinery; in past lives they had a purpose and a job. Now they look sad as they decay in the fields, the new machines are doing the job that once required a man and a machine work together. “Repurposed” is not a new idea, living in a disposable world in the twenty first century makes “repurposed” out to be a “saving the world” idea. Repurposed is giving something a new job or new life. I am repurposed anytime I learn a new skill, this gives me new life.
By using MIG welding to repurpose the found metal objects, I can bring them new life. Stripping objects back down to the beginning pieces I can then take those pieces and recreate them into a new story. My sculptures can have a function sometimes to use in our current lives and some are only for display.
I take inspiration from nature, movement, and processes like the way certain mediums react to each other. Exploring new techniques like adding patinas to metal and new materials like brazing on brass enhance the way things will come together as a whole. Finding metal is a treasure hunt, the stories that unravel when I find metal, help bring the inspiration for what it will be made into and the new story it will continue to tell.
(Tiyóspaye) was made with Rust oleum spray paint, a sheer polyester fabric, and a CAD created stencil. By using the precision of a Co2 Laser cutter I was able to keep the details in the chip board. For the design I limited myself to color families with different hues that are part of the native culture. There are 7 total stencils to make this one picture. By changing the colors and the stencils used in each picture it allows the viewer to give it closure the way they perceive it. They are displayed in proximity to each other so the viewer can see each piece individually and as a group. By selectively choosing the stencils out of order and incompletely it gives the viewer another way to decide what is the foreground and what is the background.
(Pink) I used magazines to create the collage. I patterned the pieces using an exacto knife and transfer paper. The color schemes that are in this piece include complimentary, analogous, monochromatic, and tertiary. The complimentary blue and orange colors make the image pop off the page. Creating the analogous colors in the face was tricky, I used browns, tans, oranges, and pinks next to each other to blend them together. I used monochromatic colors in the oranges and blues to give a sharper definition. The background color brings out the color of her eyes and draws your attention. I used a floating frame to help give it more depth and dimension. The iconic figure in the image is known as a confident and strong woman. The color blue exudes confidence, something I am still learning in myself.
A cumulative picture of some of my metal yard ornaments on display at a sale. (Jeep seat) made out of an old jeep frame, bed frame and tractor seats takes front and center. (Karate) made from random tractor parts. (Soak up the Sun) is made out of a retired farm disk, a piece of a steel wheel, and tow hooks, topped with a ceramic glazed bird bath. (Circles of life) made from parts of bearing sets, inner and outer wheels. All of these pieces are welded together and placed outside to let mother nature put her "patina" on them.