Kevin Brown welds imagination to iron

If you’ve noticed the heron sculpture at the beginning of the Bayou Boardwalk near Barrow Street, then you’re familiar with Kevin Brown’s ability to manipulate iron. But such representational art is merely one side of the sculptor’s talent.

Brown has a playful side to his creativity that, at times, borders on the fantastic but also shows diversity in his appreciation for animals and the female form. Antelope busts with twisted antlers, iron chairs with wavy or vertebrae-inspired seatbacks, Cubist-inspired iron female depictions, iron sculptures featuring animal skulls… are all creations that began with simple ideas in his imagination.

“I’ve always had a crazy imagination, my whole life,” Brown said, adding that he strives to keep designs simple. But he keeps thinking of things to include in the pieces, seeing flaws and finding ways to improve them, rendering them busy and complicated.

“It ain’t never complete,” Brown said, admitting he finds it difficult to call a piece “done.” That helps explain the fanciful curlicues that adorn the tips of a number of his iron sculptures – almost like a wisp of smoke spiraling into the air.

A shipyard welder for 30 years, Brown showed a talent early for manipulating metal. He’d learned welding in high school and was hired as a tacker at a shipyard, but his skill quickly earned him a place as a welder. He credits his welding career with teaching him how to manipulate iron, and today, he supplements his artistic income by working with Mike Methe of Yard Works on ornamental fences and railings. Brown’s been assisting Methe with railings for the Dupont building on Barrow Street, which is under renovation.

“I’ve been doing art since I could walk. It was just always there,” Brown said. “I just thought everybody could do that.” He enjoyed drawing and learned woodcarving from his father, but his subject matter was always a bit different.

“Where (children) were making mud pies, I was making tikis,” adding bits of shells, bone and other found objects. “I don’t want to do what everybody’s doing,” he said.

That desire – to do something different – still drives Brown in his art. He wants to become recognized as a designer who’s sought after for his individual style.

For example, his life-sized woman’s torso was carved with a chainsaw out of a log reclaimed from the Dulac swamp. The wood’s grain patterns flow down the chest, cascading like a modern necklace. Brown plans to finish the piece with acrylic to preserve the wood.

His iron guitar stands – for he also enjoys playing the instrument regularly – also feature those fanciful curlicues. In a metal animal sculpture, exhibited for a short time at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the head is represented by a canine skull in a metal cage.

Brown does his ironwork and other sculpting in the back yard of his McKinley Street home and, since he doesn’t have a workshop outdoors, brings his creations indoors to paint and finish in a small room dedicated to that purpose. Turning in place, it’s easy to spot the influences of Pablo Picasso and surrealist Salvador Dali in his work.

“I have so little space,” Brown said, “until I make this goal I’ve been working on for years and years (of recognition),” he can’t separate his workshop and home. Tools, objects found in nature and his sculptures keep each other company in the room, each awaiting their turn for attention.

And he does work at his goal regularly. A few new pieces were featured at the Houma Regional Arts Council’s event highlighting the organization’s programming in July. He’s planning to show his chairs and guitar stands in exhibits for Art After Dark, Terrebonne Fine Arts Guild’s public art exhibit along several blocks in downtown Houma on Sept. 14.

Brown’s also ready to begin work on a new bird sculpture commissioned for the boardwalk – this time a pelican to be placed near Roussell Street, he said. Like the heron, it’ll be a slightly oversized representation. The commission is from a benefactor who plans to anonymously donate the sculpture.

“The Main Street program is very excited to have another addition of art to downtown Houma,” said Anne Picou, manager of the program that is partnering with the arts council to develop and promote downtown as an arts destination. “Kevin is a very talented artist with a huge heart and he is passionate about downtown,” she said. 

Brown’s also passionate about creating his art – shaping his designs from metal, wood and unusual objects, and sharing his individual style.

– katherine@gumboguide.com

Entitled “Opiate” for the color, this chair further incorporates Kevin Brown’s interpretation of the poppy flower in the seat and backrest’s shapes.

KATHERINE GILBERT-THERIOT | GUMBO ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE

Working on rotting wood reclaimed from nature, Brown used a chain saw to carve this woman’s torso, reveling in the wood’s grain patterns that cascade down the bust.

KATHERINE GILBERT-THERIOT | GUMBO ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE