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BRECKENRIDGE — Kyan Bishop, current resident of the Tin Shop, points to masses of golden metal hanging on the white wall of her studio and resting on its floor.
Organic shapes have blossomed from strips of aluminum flashing, a metal material used primarily to waterproof roofs, and the twisted forms shine as the light hits its curves. Since arriving in Breckenridge, Bishop has been cutting up chunks of it, twisting it, turning it and pulling it as far as it can go.
“What does it want to do?” she asked. “It happens very organically.”
Bishop likes to obtain ready-made objects or found objects and then give a new understanding to the material. She’s worked with clay, wax, acrylic paint, river water, recycled stone ware and wisteria to name a few. She likes to take a building block approach to creating art and she alters the shape of functional pieces, like bowls and pitchers, to remove their meaning or reassign it.
Bishop usually has a few projects going at once. Finding a site for a piece is just as important as the art itself and she likes to work in non-traditional spaces, like hallways, staircases and ceilings because she wants the observer to be surrounded by her work.
“I want to see how the piece responds to the site,” she said.
Born in Korea, Bishop was adopted and lived with her family in Duluth, Minn., on the shore of Lake Superior. She played the piano growing up, her hands acting as a vehicle for expressing herself even then. However, she didn’t grow up with an interest in art.
“I was a math and science kid,” said Bishop. “... Visual arts seemed weird to me.”
She graduated in 1997 with a double major in Spanish and economics from Denison University, as well as a minor in music.
After college, Bishop discovered her interest in art while serving in the Peace Corp from 1997 through 1999. In a small, sheepherding town in Paraguay, she worked at an artists’ cooperative where she taught the people to balance books and market their business. At night they taught her how to weave and wash wool. There, Bishop returned to working with her hands.
After traveling around Latin America, Bishop moved to Washington, D.C. in 2000 and in 2002, she took her first art class, ceramics, at Montgomery College in Maryland. After completing the ceramics class, she took other fundamental art classes.
“They began opening up the world of art for me,” said Bishop. “… Art is a skill. You just take classes like anything else.”
And take classes she did. Through her studies, Bishop began to think more conceptually about how objects relate to the space.
“There are a lot of answers out there and they can all be right,” she said.
She wants people who view her art to have different understandings of it. Society blocks itself in, she said, and it’s not black and white.
Since 2005, Bishop has worked as a community affairs analyst for the Federal Reserve. While her day job is structured and filled with answers, her art is abstract.
Working with both ceramics and installation pieces, she focuses on being OK with something that doesn’t have an answer. Elements that influence her work include nature, as well as the patterns, colors, textures and repetitions of city life.
Bishop has taught sculpture and ceramics classes to children and she’s managed an arts and crafts summer program. In 2005, she was a Paul Peck Humanities Institute Scholar and was employed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art in the Office of Public Affairs of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M Sackler Gallery. Her sculpture and installation work has been shown in numerous juried shows and is incorporated in many private collections.
As of 2006, Bishop has worked as a resident artist at Red Dirt Studio in Mt. Rainier, Md. There she shares space and ideas with other artists.
“It’s like grad school with no grades,” said Bishop.
On Wednesday, Bishop will hold a free workshop, “Superstition.” Open to all ages, it will investigate both art and superstition as forms of secular spirituality that seek to define fate and environment.
“Bad luck and good fortune are often connected to a series of actions that ultimately are determined by the rationale of the subscriber,” said Bishop. “In creating myth and illusion artists often weave enigmatic real world elements into objects that become personal relics and icons, often seeking to explore a belief or notion despite evidence to the contrary.”
Participants will produce clay fortune cookies and contribute in the process of installing a series of small ceramic works at the Tin Shop.
Organic shapes have blossomed from strips of aluminum flashing, a metal material used primarily to waterproof roofs, and the twisted forms shine as the light hits its curves. Since arriving in Breckenridge, Bishop has been cutting up chunks of it, twisting it, turning it and pulling it as far as it can go.
“What does it want to do?” she asked. “It happens very organically.”
Bishop likes to obtain ready-made objects or found objects and then give a new understanding to the material. She’s worked with clay, wax, acrylic paint, river water, recycled stone ware and wisteria to name a few. She likes to take a building block approach to creating art and she alters the shape of functional pieces, like bowls and pitchers, to remove their meaning or reassign it.
Bishop usually has a few projects going at once. Finding a site for a piece is just as important as the art itself and she likes to work in non-traditional spaces, like hallways, staircases and ceilings because she wants the observer to be surrounded by her work.
“I want to see how the piece responds to the site,” she said.
Born in Korea, Bishop was adopted and lived with her family in Duluth, Minn., on the shore of Lake Superior. She played the piano growing up, her hands acting as a vehicle for expressing herself even then. However, she didn’t grow up with an interest in art.
“I was a math and science kid,” said Bishop. “... Visual arts seemed weird to me.”
She graduated in 1997 with a double major in Spanish and economics from Denison University, as well as a minor in music.
After college, Bishop discovered her interest in art while serving in the Peace Corp from 1997 through 1999. In a small, sheepherding town in Paraguay, she worked at an artists’ cooperative where she taught the people to balance books and market their business. At night they taught her how to weave and wash wool. There, Bishop returned to working with her hands.
After traveling around Latin America, Bishop moved to Washington, D.C. in 2000 and in 2002, she took her first art class, ceramics, at Montgomery College in Maryland. After completing the ceramics class, she took other fundamental art classes.
“They began opening up the world of art for me,” said Bishop. “… Art is a skill. You just take classes like anything else.”
And take classes she did. Through her studies, Bishop began to think more conceptually about how objects relate to the space.
“There are a lot of answers out there and they can all be right,” she said.
She wants people who view her art to have different understandings of it. Society blocks itself in, she said, and it’s not black and white.
Since 2005, Bishop has worked as a community affairs analyst for the Federal Reserve. While her day job is structured and filled with answers, her art is abstract.
Working with both ceramics and installation pieces, she focuses on being OK with something that doesn’t have an answer. Elements that influence her work include nature, as well as the patterns, colors, textures and repetitions of city life.
Bishop has taught sculpture and ceramics classes to children and she’s managed an arts and crafts summer program. In 2005, she was a Paul Peck Humanities Institute Scholar and was employed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art in the Office of Public Affairs of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M Sackler Gallery. Her sculpture and installation work has been shown in numerous juried shows and is incorporated in many private collections.
As of 2006, Bishop has worked as a resident artist at Red Dirt Studio in Mt. Rainier, Md. There she shares space and ideas with other artists.
“It’s like grad school with no grades,” said Bishop.
On Wednesday, Bishop will hold a free workshop, “Superstition.” Open to all ages, it will investigate both art and superstition as forms of secular spirituality that seek to define fate and environment.
“Bad luck and good fortune are often connected to a series of actions that ultimately are determined by the rationale of the subscriber,” said Bishop. “In creating myth and illusion artists often weave enigmatic real world elements into objects that become personal relics and icons, often seeking to explore a belief or notion despite evidence to the contrary.”
Participants will produce clay fortune cookies and contribute in the process of installing a series of small ceramic works at the Tin Shop.
At the Tin Shop
• What: Workshop titles, “Superstition.” This workshop is open to all ages.• When: Wednesday Nov. 28 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
• Where: Tin Shop, 117 E. Washington Ave., Breckenridge.
• Sign up: Call (970) 547-3116 at least one day in advance.
• What: Open studio hours
• When: Noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays through Nov. 30.
