Andrew Dengate
Meet the artist behind INSTINCT 2023.
WHY?
My recent work directly reflects my musings on the creatures we share this planet with. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about evolution and the pressure we’re putting on species to adapt much more quickly than they’re capable of. This is the “Elephant in the Room”: something so desperately obvious, but nobody knows how to approach it.
The process of evolution is a system so ingenious that it capitalizes on ‘flaws’ in the genetic code, allowing species to change to better suit their environment and fight for their survival. While a solution exists, it takes several million years.
In science, the big cool animals, the ones that end up on pamphlets, flyers, and postcards, are referred to as “sexy” species. It’s easy to talk about their habitats getting pinched because people love these animals. However, our truth on this planet is usually indicated by much smaller things. Frogs, fish, and insects are often the first to show the effects of environmental disruption. In “Truth and Bugs,” the three species shown are all extinct: gone forever, whether by human hands or, interestingly, their own.
Life is not simple in the face of so many threats: habitat loss, parasites, disease, poaching, deforestation, invasive species, climate change. Despite this, I do not want to spin a story of doom and gloom. In the words of Oscar Wilde, “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
So what am I asking of you as the viewer? Of myself? Of humans? I don’t know, but I do know that it’s a question that we will be forced to answer, a question we should prepare for.
HOW?
I create these works starting from a watercolor base that pulls out the grain of the wood and adds a subtle tone to the work. The acrylic and oil paint is layered over the watercolor base as a richer and deeper color, allowing the main image to pop off the wood. The texture of the wood shows through on my works, which adds a level of depth and provides a durable canvas. Instead of ignoring the ‘canvas’ I’m painting on, I try to highlight the importance of material and construction. The prevalence of the triangle is influenced by a pretty neat rug in my bedroom. The triangle also symbolizes change, however, an omnipresent theme in my work. I’m as influenced by artists and movements as I am by scientists and their discoveries. While science can explain why wings form in three different ways, it fails to explain art. Some questions are best left unanswered.
TEDxBreckenridge 2023 INSTINCT Artists
Each artist will create a custom piece inspired by our 2023 theme, INSTINCT.
Learn about our artists below!
Jessica Ream
Featured INSTINCT 2023 Artist
Jessica Ream was born in Columbus, Ohio, early in the year 1990, but was raised in Carolina suburbia. She attended Savannah College of Art and Design, where she graduated with honors and a BFA in Painting. A jack-of-all-trades artist, she incorporates her knowledge of painting, photography, print, sewing, and sculpture into her mixed media abstract paintings.
After spending the past five years in the High Rockies of Colorado, she and her husband have re-turned to their southeastern, coastal origins, where they reside with their son and two, four-legged, furry children.
Abby Z Roemer
Featured INSTINCT 2023 Artist
Abby spent 12 years in Denver, CO before transplanting to Santa Fe, New Mexico upon invitation to assist esteemed artist and educator, Amado Pena Jr, in pursuit of cultivating her own life as an artist. As of Spring 2023 she’s back in Colorado, and applying all she learned.
Abby’s art is frequently acknowledged for being unique in style and for the colorful combinations involved in both her imagined as well as photograph inspired compositions. She creates with an intention to evoke feeling, imagination, connection, and wonder-and-or awe within herself as well as for viewers. Possessed with a lifelong compassion for animals and our natural world, it’s not-so surprising that her art illuminates these subjects. Beyond achieving a reasonable livelihood, she seeks to discover a greater impact her artwork can have on behalf of a more hospitable and humane planet for all beings."
Kamber Sokulsky
Featured INSTINCT 2023 Artist
I began my art career as a 2-D artist focused on Fine Art and Creative Writing. I learned Blacksmithing (and later welding) as a sort of ‘therapy’ while working on my degree in Austin, Texas. I fell in love with the art of Blacksmithing and began to focus on that more, starting with custom furniture for my first few commissions. Eventually, I was offered a position for a lighting company as lead blacksmith, focused on lighting and railings, which brought me to Colorado in 2004. After the business closed, I furthered developed my skills working for other prominent Architectural Blacksmiths all over Colorado, much of that work in Aspen and Breckenridge. I continued with that until I decided to work for myself and created eleMetal designs in 2007.
I served on the Board of Directors for five years for the Rocky Mountain Blacksmiths, the regional artists guild for Blacksmiths, and then later both created and developed the Blacksmithing Studio and Program at a successful Maker’s Space in CO. In 2020, I moved back to Salida after being gone for fifteen years, and after recent completion of a new studio, I am resuming my teaching of this wonderful craft.
Though I enjoyed quite a bit of success as an Architectural Blacksmith, I did not want to leave my fine art behind. Along the way, I began to incorporate my Blacksmithing skills, to create sculptural art, wall art and designer furniture. I utilize traditional Blacksmithing techniques alongside modern fabricationas well as stone, glass, wood, bronze and copper.
I see myself as both an Artist Blacksmith as well as an Architectural Blacksmith. As an Architectural Blacksmith, I create railings, fireplaces, custom lighting, commercial signs and an extensive body of work in Art In Public Places. I find that my artistry lends itself to unique creations that separate my work from traditional fabrications.
As an Artist Blacksmith, I work primarily with the subconscious. Blacksmithing as an age-old craft unto itself is filled with mysticism and power. Especially true to my heart is a series I call the “Modern Totems”. I borrow symbols from my Native American heritage, Celtic heritage as well as my Ukrainian heritage. Whenever possible, I used recycled materials, sometimes in their present state, and other times, reshaping them to my vision.
Manifestation is a reoccurring theme, represented by the blue feathers that appear in much of my work. Gears and feathers appear alongside of hand forged symbols, plays on the ideas of the marriage of Spirit and the free will of Man. “Intuition” plays an important role in both my Architectural work as well as my Artistic work. When working with clients for custom work, I work with very clear planned direction, drawings and designs, though there is intuition involved in creating custom designs to fit the direct tastes of clients. When creating my Artistic works, I often look more to my heart, allowing my intuition, as well as my Spirit to guide me in my final creations.