Kevin Sampson: Folk Art Sculpture
Statement:
I consider myself to be a mixed-Media artist, as I work visually in many different ways, depending upon my mood and or inspiration. I am an artist who makes found object assemblage sculptures, as well as completing five major Murals with (City Murals) in Newark New Jersey, as well as being an accomplished illustrator and painter.
All of my different training, skill sets and life experience, is put on display when I create a sculpture, an installation, and or a painting.
When I construct sculptures using found objects, I consider this to be the retrieval of materials that still hold both the memory and ultimately the power of the previous owner’s life and deeds.
In my case art making is a healing mechanism for both me and my community. My work tends to take a critical view of social, political and cultural issues.
And In many cases I consider this form of art making to be the creation of a spiritual necklace of a vanquished peoples magic.
While I use a variety of materials and processes in each project, my methodology is consistent. And although there may not always be material similarities between the different projects they are linked by recurring formal concerns and through the subject matter.
I often engage subjects like politics, civil rights, my work often creates familiar visual signs, arranging them into new conceptually layered pieces. My community and the world at large are a continual and recurring theme in my work; I am a community based artist that derives both his motivation and inspiration from the human community(text website The New York Optimist)