Two female members of Texas County’s diverse community of artisans set up an exhibition of their work last Friday in the Houston Rural Fire Department community room.
The pair consisted of Bucyrus resident Marian McKinney, who specializes in metal jewelry and runs a business she calls McKinney Forge, and Lanie Frick, of Licking, who produces paintings of “traditional subjects with contemporary flair.”
Between engaging potential customers with explanations or descriptions, each took a few moments to answer a set of questions designed to allow a glimpse of their perspectives of what they do as artists.
Marian McKinney
Q: How would you describe your work, like the style and the materials you use?
A: “I can tell you where the work comes from. I take antique, silver-plated trays and give them a new life. I take them into my studio and find the beauty within them and make jewelry from these antique trays. Sometimes they have filigree pieces to them and I cut them out by hand, other times the complete piece will show a lot of the design of the tray. And I often take smaller pieces and make them into delicate individual pieces.”
Q: How long have you been doing this?
A: “This series of work I’ve been doing for five years. But as a professional metalsmith, I’ve been working 25 years.”
Q: What inspires you to do a particular piece?
A: “The tray itself. The tray forms the work. Sometimes they have scratches on them and they need a certain treatment, but if I have one that is pristine and clean, it gets either radium plated or gold plated because it just gives me a crystal clear image of what the tray is in itself.
But each and every tray is different. Although some of the designs are duplicates, the trays are always a little bit different because they’ve been used in households. They were very important to our grandparents; every bride got a piece of silver plate for a wedding gift and then it was a sense of pride. They were used at any social occasion and it was just special.
Now we don’t use silver plate. It’s a problem to maintain, and to keep it clean and polished, and it just doesn’t fit into our lifestyle. So many of these trays are being discarded. They’re put into auctions and flea markets and I pick them up and give them a new purpose.
Q: What do you find most satisfying about producing art?
A: “The finished piece. It’s the process to get to the finished piece. Once a piece is complete, I move on to the next one. I don’t need to own it, I need to make it. I’m a maker and a doer.”
Lanie Frick
Q: How would you describe your work, like the style and the materials you use?
A: “I work in acrylic, on either a hard panel or canvas. I like to use bright colors and work with natural subjects to infuse them with more life and vitality.”
Q: How long have you been doing this?
A: “I’ve been an artist since I was real little. My mom used to bring home notebooks and papers from the store and I would just draw and draw.”
Q: What inspires you to do a particular piece?
A: “Either the light that’s reflected on it or the light shining through something. Besides that, it’s my love of animals.”
Q: What do you find most satisfying about producing art?
A: “Taking something from an original concept and then seeing it come to life as I work. I don’t plan everything out 100-percent, so there are all kinds of surprises for myself, and I hope the viewer is surprised as well.”
McKinney and Frick will set up again at the same location Nov. 1 and 2, this time joined by several other local artists who will also display their work.
McKinney’s jewelry is featured on the Vulcan Artists Creations website at www.vacmetalart.com. Examples of Frick’s paintings can be seen at www.laniefrick.com.