Keoni

I use fire, sharpened steel and inks to create story-driven, touchable illusions… wood, re-imagined as woven and beaded basketry. The contemporary designs are inspired by Native Culture storytelling and imagery, artwork accented with found, natural objects such as rose thorn, seed pods, quills and shell. The wood is sugar maple, 30% from recyclable sources. I work freehand, drawing from recollections and notebooks of tribal imagery I research. Once the wood  and canvas has been shaped on a lathe, designs are burned at high temperatures onto the wood using a single, 1/8 straight-line tool. It is not uncommon for artwork to require 25,000+ individual cuts/burns/colored cells to execute a design. India inks and organic dyes provide color as a finishing step. The application of these techniques is seldom seen with wood as a medium and to interpret tribal stories in contemporary carvings. The artwork brings to life tribal heritage and shared histories.