Artist Statement
Following an MFA in New England, and seven years tenure as a fine art printmaking mentor and consultant at The Printmaking Workshop in Manhattan, we fast forward to Kei’s Indiana Sea fiasco at Studio Krakow in Michigan City.
Using time honored methods and materials, following in the shoes of venerated artisans from the past, with a somber palette Kei seeks to “edutain” herself and her audience, with nostalgic imagery and subjects from Europe’s medieval past. Her references, both literary and historical, feature in her novella “Mechtild’s Medieval Adventures, an Adult Fairy Tale”: cruel Inquisitors, Romany, pestilence and cog ships in sea monster territory.
Currently Kei is fashioning bas relief Faux Relic Frames, available by commission, which she employs in her own work. Weary of modern cassetta frames, she creates fanciful gilded surrounds with linen arches, plant and animal depictions.