Following an academic career as a clinical researcher [PhD Anatomy], Kevin retired to Injidup to build a house, establish workshop spaces to enable the fitout, followed by landscaping and building rock walls. Then an epiphany – what about welding? So in 2020 off to his steel fabricators for advice on equipment, materials and the affair with metal began.
His inspiration for his house design and subsequent creative projects stems from the timeless Japanese aesthetic of elegant simplicity. From face-work rock walls, Torii gates, concrete/steel Yukimi lanterns, Bonsai trees, mechanical tensegrity structures, to intricate steel hands used to support planetary spheres, he is not daunted by scope or complexity. His philosophy is: “If I can sketch it, I can create it”. His grandfather used to say “Just start… then you will learn.” Nowadays YouTube fills in the gaps along with long-suffering colleagues across the steel trades.
His steel grapevines, small Bonsai tree sculptures, and his owls and eagles often incorporate 24Kt gold leaf. All one-off pieces utilise repurposed steel, concrete, plus indigenous timbers & stone from the region. A four metre wingspan Corten steel Wedge-tailed eagle greets visitors to his property and another large windvane eagle circles above his workshop/gallery at Injidup. Several kinetic and wind-vane sculptures incorporate eagles in their design so visitors will see these numerous raptors swoop and spin in the breeze.
Most sculptures are highly tactile and invite interaction by visitors, especially children who are intuitively drawn to learn about things through touch. The next major project will be to design and build a gallery space to house the smaller art works and prints.