Kevin Shaffer

artist-4 USB totem

Photo by Bruce Hucko

Kevin Wayne Shaffer was born and raised in a Mid-Western landscape of tall grass prairie and Oak savanna.  This place in the Heartland, a work-hard-play-hard ethic was engrained on a horse ranch, and the ever present Prairie Style inspired Kevin’s development to eventually study architecture, land planning, landscape architecture, horticulture, and sculpture.

“For the creation of artwork, design of landscape, a building, a piece of furniture, anything… extracting the context is what inspires my creative process.”

The years of experience and progression in design thought has influenced Kevin’s art and design career to seek a minimalist approach; honest in the details with naturally rich materials.  Kevin prefers to join art media and sustainable built environments in a way to inspire ways of living, create environmental awareness, and reduce maintenance and over-management.

“I am interested in creating a dialogue between ecology and human culture in a way that geomorphology can produce a construction detail.  I believe what we learn from the un-built environment is the future of our built world.”

Kevin’s design process is a product of project specifics.  A common question at the beginning of any project would be, “What is found in the meaning of the context extracted from site specific research?”  The research of history and region, responsibilities towards the environment, local culture, and functionality versus aesthetics; these are all important areas of study and time well spent to this transplant with roots now in the United States’ Mountain Time Zone.

 

 

Leadville, Co

 

 

 

Recharge Totem

4a-2023 copy

Photo by Bruce Hucko

Media: Reclaimed steel and aluminum wire, repurposed snowcat and bicycle parts, solar panel, and usb port.

Dimensions: 12'h x 3'w x 1'd

$8200

Someday the Sun will stop providing light and gravity that sustains life on Earth. While I accept my place in time and space this what I was thinking about while creating this sculpture.

“Concepts of time and space at their most complex are sometimes best expressed through art rather than science.” – Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot

In explanation of what you do in those last moments before everything ends: “You rage, rage against the dying of the light.” – Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pinchin