Wes Casey | Unnatural History
Wes Casey is a sculptor whose work is a reflection of both nature and myth, blending together the natural history of the subject with its folkloric origins. He currently works and lives in Mission Kansas working with metal, stone, ceramics, and found objects to create representational pieces for both the public and private settings.
Wes attended the Kansas City Art Institute studying figure drawing and painting with live models. This helped to develop a deeper appreciation of the fluid movement and depth of the living form. Early on, Wes primarily worked with painting, illustration, and printmaking, but soon discovered that his true passion was with three dimensional sculpture.
He began his exploration of sculpture by traveling extensively through Western Europe, North Africa, and Southeast Asia studying the religious and ritual art and sculptures found in the many cathedrals and temples. He spent six months hitchhiking through the outback of Australia studying Oceanic art, and four months traveling through the war torn countries of Central America visiting the ancient temples and ruins of the Maya.
Wes Casey’s work has been featured for the last five years as part of The Trap Gallery’s annual Love Rust sculpture show. His sculptures have twice received Best of Show awards from the Raytown Artists Association and his public sculptures can be seen in Gladstone Missouri and as an award piece for the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Casey's work is a reflection of nature, science, and a love of natural history. Most of the subjects for his sculptures come from his observations in nature.
"My process involves researching the form, history, and evolution of each subject as well as its folklore and myth in order to blend together the two concepts. My earliest works as an artist was as an illustrator and my sculptures work as a illustrative representation of form and movement. In creating the sculpture, the challenge then becomes translating the illustration into a three dimensional object that still maintains a sense of weightless fluidity within a static form." - Wes Casey
