My recipe for uncommon concrete includes sand, Portland cement, water, mirrors, souvenir plates, fossils, tile, nails, spikes, foundry parts and assorted rusty metal.

Every single year as I was growing up my Mother asked me: " What are you going to be when you grow  up?"Every single year I made up an answer to keep from saying: "Can't you see what I already am?"  Every opportunity to demonstrate my secret answer was met with the stark fear of a painfully shy child.  Finally, at the age of 15, in a moment of monumental bravery I told Mother that I wanted to be an artist.  That seemed as unlikely to her as finding art in a batch of common concrete and yet her support allowed me to graduate from the Memphis Academy of Arts with a B.F.A. 1979.

My first experience with concrete happened in 2000 while pouring pier caps during the renovation of my house.  I followed an inspiration that day and created my first bowl in the driveway.  I began to mix ideas into the concrete for vessels that held water or fire and produced brilliant reflections or fascinating shadows.

Birdbaths lined with cut mirrors and tile pieces and bowls embellished with broken souvenir glass generated attention that led to participation in art shows in Chattanooga, Nashville, Birmingham, and Atlanta.  Commissions for custom sinks and other exclusive pieces followed.  Examples of my art and creative technique were published in Creating with Concrete  and Creative Concrete Ornaments for the Garden both by Sherry Warner Hunter.   Tennessee Public Television featured a segment of my work on Tennessee Crossroads.  One of my favorite concrete western boot-stitched barbed wire handled purses was included in the 2008 Art Quest exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN.  My

My current creations mimic ordinary objects ranging from nail studded torches to purses, bras, bustiers, eggs, little shoes and intricately inlaid vessels.  You can find my "uncommon concrete" at Tanner Hill Gallery in Chattanooga, TN, Leiper's Creek Gallery in Leiper's Fork, TN, as well as, the southeast's most prestigious art festivals.

kem~