THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608090224
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Random Rambles
SOURCE: Tony Stein
LENGTH: 77 lines
Betting that Ken Kirby would turn out to be an artist would have been like betting that Santa Claus would be busy on Christmas Eve. Sure thing for Santa. Sure thing for Kirby. He has a double dose of art in his genes.
His dad, Jim Kirby, did wood block printing, a lot of them beautifully serene outdoor scenes that are hanging in homes and offices all over Hampton Roads. Jim died in 1992 in an accidental fall from his roof, but his wife Pat - Ken's mother - still lives in Chesapeake. She used to do wonderfully crafted wall hangings, and now she's painting.
Ken, who owns Ann Nicole Gallery in Greenbrier, vows that he never figured on art as a career. Never even thought he had artistic talent. Though he used to hang out in his dad's studio lot, it was more father-son visitation than look and learn. However, when he was about 18, a notion clicked into place. He was taking an art history course at Tidewater Community College, and he started sketching in his notebook.
Why art history? Because, says Ken, art history is world history. He points to the famous cave paintings in France. As far back as 20,000 years ago, primitive people left a record in art that tells us much about their life and culture. History in pictures, not words. It caught Ken's imagination.
Now he's 36 and, while the gallery's framing work helps pay the bills, Ken's art rounds out his life. And it's a family life, reflected for one thing in the gallery's name. Ann and Nicole are the middle names of his two oldest daughters. There's a third daughter, and the other family member is his wife Suzanne, a court reporter. She shares the tight-fitting little studio above the store with Ken.
Organized clutter rules. Art work in all stages of completion. A couple of bicycles, because Ken is a dedicated rider. And a small sculpture of a rhinoceros. Ask him why a rhinoceros and he says he's fascinated with prehistoric animals. Take a look at the next rhinoceros you see and you understand. The critters look like Og the caveman ought to be riding one to the Stone Age version of ``Back in the Saddle Again.''
Ken does woodblock prints as his dad did, and some of his recent work is on exhibit at Norfolk's Hermitage Foundation Museum through Aug. 26. When he explained the process of making the prints to me, it made Job look like a quitter.
You sketch the design on a piece of wood. Then let's say you want parts of the picture to be blue. You carve those parts and put blue pigment on them. Then you print them on acid-free paper. Then you carve the parts that might be red or green or whatever. And print them. Separately. Separate printing for each color. Could be as many as 40 or 50 repeats of the process.
``Thus,'' says a card Ken gives out, ``each finished image is an original print produced entirely by the hand of the artist. The completed edition is then signed and numbered, traditionally in pencil.''
I tried to get Ken to say something deeply profound and philosophical about the artistic mind-set. No luck. He seems to be a guy who discovered a rich talent within himself and is contentedly using it. For that matter, he believes it is wrong not to exercise a natural talent. Instinct, he says, plays a larger part in what he does than analysis. He doesn't put his ideas under a mental microscope and examine every facet. ``You can ruin something if you turn it over too much,'' he says.
Ken's earlier work is reminiscent of what his dad did, scenes of nature in a quiet mood. But many of the images that surrounded us in his studio were very different. In one print, the Biblical character of David was the central figure. In another, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, were represented. Religion is important to him, Ken says, and he is a constant Bible reader.
But religion is only one of the themes he deals with. Another work in progress is a barroom scene, enticing him for the medley of colors and shapes it will produce. He laughs and says he's lucky because inspiration comes easy to him. Even at night when he sometimes rouses up to sketch an idea before it escapes into the dark.
There is a contemporary, modernistic feel to what he's doing now and to a lot of work shown in the gallery. That's because he perceives that the Greenbrier area of Chesapeake is home to an increasing level of sophistication. There's a public to please, but he says his own work will focus on being honest and uncompromising. ``I'm not thinking, `Will it sell?' '' he says. ``I do like to sell, but that's not my goal.
``If I didn't do my art, I just wouldn't feel balanced.'' by CNB