Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Chambers.
Kevin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in a small north Georgia town where, let’s just say, the idea of being a professional working artist was not the norm. Luckily for me, Colleen Sterling, an amazing artist from Chicago, decided to retire to Blairsville, GA and offer private art classes. I started working with her as a student and ended up studying with her for several years before leaving for art school after graduating high school. She showed me that it was possible to be an artist and gave me a taste of the work and dedication it would take to actually succeed at it. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in animation from the Art Institute of Atlanta, I received an apprenticeship at a local large-scale sculpture studio. I started out doing anything I could; sweeping the floors, setting up for classes, building armatures. I knew this place would provide me the tools and education needed to build my career. I worked my way up to head apprentice which gained me the experience of managing a studio with multiple commissions, interacting with clients, and understanding the business side of the studio. In 2014, my wife and I decided it was time to “jump off the cliff” and open our own Atelier style studio, offering classical sculpture, painting, and other traditional art classes. The studio has since doubled in size and taken on multiple national and international commission sculpture projects, along with the growing classical art instruction.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My grandfathers taught me a long time ago that anything worth having wasn’t going to come easy. Being a professional full-time artist and running an atelier-style studio is not an easy road. Being a sculptor takes a massive amount of work and dedication. Just securing a proper studio with enough space for me to teach and to also have space to produce sculpture is a monumental task. Sculpture, (if you are truly doing it yourself, not just turning your clay sculpture over to the foundry to have them do all the work for you) takes a lot of space and infrastructure. You need a clean space to model the clay and work with the live models. You also need a space that can get dirty for mold making, wax casting, and all of the welding and bronze work. I regularly work an 80hr week and still feel like I am behind most of the time. Most people are not cut out for this type of work. Sure, the creativity and resulting artwork are rewarding and fun – I do enjoy every minute of that work, but the “business” side of the studio is a full-time job all on its own. Learning how to properly balance deadlines and client expectations, running day-to-day tasks, paying taxes, obtaining licenses and permits, etc. could easily be its own career. Luckily Lauren, my amazing wife, and business partner, has the business degree, background knowledge and experience that allows us to make this happen. Without her, I would probably be a bartender somewhere talking about how I used to be a sculptor.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the KLC Studios Inc. story. Tell us more about the business.
KLC Studios is an atelier-style fine arts studio specializing in classical figurative sculpture. We offer a variety of weekly classes in traditional sculpture, painting, and drawing. We also offer workshops by some of the best professional working artists today. Then we have KLC Hospitality, which works directly with art consultants and interior designers to design and execute custom commercial sculpture for the hospitality industry both nationally and internationally. Then there is the fine art side of the studio where we specialize in producing Kevin Chambers limited edition museum quality bronze sculpture. Unlike a lot of other sculptors, I do not have the bulk of my work done at a foundry by other craftsmen.
I complete every part of the process that I can in-house. When the clay sculpture is finished I make a rubber mold that I use to cast a wax positive of the sculpture. After cleaning up all mold seams and any imperfections in the wax, I ship it out to a fine arts foundry for bronze casting. After casting, the foundry sends me back the raw bronze pieces that I then have to fit and weld back together. After everything is welded, the weld marks are ground back down and cleaned up to match the look of the original clay surface. When I am happy with the finished bronze, I then apply a chemical patina to the bronze surface to give the sculpture its final finish or look. Completing all this in-house gives my work an advantage since I control the quality of the sculpture from the very beginning. When a collector purchases one of my pieces, they know they are receiving a piece of art that I created from start-to-finish.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I am sure luck has been somewhat of a factor in my work and the growing of my business, but I would prefer to give the credit to hard work and dedication to my craft. There is a certain amount of “right place right time” in the art world, but if you are not putting in the work then no amount of luck will keep you afloat in the long run.
Pricing:
- 10 Week Sculpture Classes with Kevin Chambers are $325
- 10 Week Classical Oil Painting Class with Marc Chatov $475
Contact Info:
- Address: 711 Trabert Ave. NW Atlanta, GA 30318
- Website: www.kevinchambersart.com
- Phone: 404-242-9228
- Email: sculpture@klcstudiosinc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinsculpture/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.chambers.3517
Image Credit:
Lauren Chambers
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