Site search
sponsored by
Home
News
ENLARGE
“Malachite Butterfly,” by Kay Cochran.
EAGLE, Colorado — Trekkies will appreciate one of Eagle resident Kay Cochran’s resume entries. The 41-year-old sculpted some of the dummy Borg drones for various Star Trek films.
“Any Borg not moving in Star Trek is me,” she said.
Cochran spent years as a commercial sculptor in Los Angeles, creating giant sculptures of cartoon characters for Disney C in Tokyo, Universal in Florida and others.
“I don’t miss working on the large theme park sculptures because it’s done in foam and that’s ucky,” she said. “(The particles) sit in the air and you have to wear a mask so you don’t breath it in.”
Cochran moved to Eagle two years ago, she said, though she used to spend summers in the valley working at The Learning Camp, a summer camp based in Eagle County for kids with learning disabilities.
“It was a job worth traveling 900 miles to get to,” she said.
A couple of years ago, when the company started an after-school program, Cochran moved to the valley full time.
“Now I get to live here, work all year around in a job I enjoy and in the winter I have time to pursue art on my own terms,” she said.
Cochran will exhibit some of her recent work, including bas-relief, which melds paintings and sculpting together, and watercolors, at Yeti’s Grind in Eagle during the month of February. An artist reception is set for Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at the coffee shop.
“Any Borg not moving in Star Trek is me,” she said.
Cochran spent years as a commercial sculptor in Los Angeles, creating giant sculptures of cartoon characters for Disney C in Tokyo, Universal in Florida and others.
“I don’t miss working on the large theme park sculptures because it’s done in foam and that’s ucky,” she said. “(The particles) sit in the air and you have to wear a mask so you don’t breath it in.”
Cochran moved to Eagle two years ago, she said, though she used to spend summers in the valley working at The Learning Camp, a summer camp based in Eagle County for kids with learning disabilities.
“It was a job worth traveling 900 miles to get to,” she said.
A couple of years ago, when the company started an after-school program, Cochran moved to the valley full time.
“Now I get to live here, work all year around in a job I enjoy and in the winter I have time to pursue art on my own terms,” she said.
Cochran will exhibit some of her recent work, including bas-relief, which melds paintings and sculpting together, and watercolors, at Yeti’s Grind in Eagle during the month of February. An artist reception is set for Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at the coffee shop.
1. Vail Daily: What does art mean to you?
Kay Cochran: Effective communication for one. I’m dyslexic; written communication can be very awkward for me. A picture, model or sculpture can convey everything from precise technical information to deep and otherwise indefinable emotions.
Art is a way of seeing and communicating ideas and feelings. It is a part of society’s dialogue with itself. A fair amount of the pieces I’ve been doing lately are light-weight breezy conversations. ‘See this thing, this tree, this deer, this butterfly, this landscape. Isn’t this thing interesting, isn’t it nice to look at?’ To my mind this question comes with another one … ‘Isn’t it important that these interesting things can continue to exist, that they aren’t destroyed or pushed into smaller and smaller pockets until they are nothing more than museum displays of what they used to be?’
2. VD: When did you know that you wanted to be a artist?
KC: When I was a kid I scared the pants off a neighbor lady with a rat I had sculpted. That success should have been a clue, but I didn’t start working as an artist until my mid-20s.
3. VD: What inspires you to create? What kind of mood do you have to be in?
KC: I like to create in the early morning before the daily grind kicks in and when ideas I’ve been thinking about have been processed and distilled by my subconscious during the night. I suspect my subconscious is smarter and more creative then I am.
4. VD: Describe your style.
KC: Decidedly undecided. Presently I’m all nature and landscapes since I’m here in the Rocky Mountains after years in L.A.
5. VD: If you were to meet any artist, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
KC: My tastes are all over the place. Right next to my book on Norman Rockwell is a volume on H.R. Geiger. Georgia O’Keeffe is awesome but so is Frank Frazetta. Velázquez is my favorite of the old masters, but the person I would like to meet would be a Mid-west farmer’s wife. My grandmother died when I was an infant and I don’t remember her but I used to wonder why my grandfather’s house, a place of simple, straightforward tastes, was full of art. I was a teenager before I realized my grandmother had painted them. I’d loved to have had a chance to talk to her.
6. VD: Where do you sell your art?
KC: I’ve been selling out of the Artist Mercantile in Glenwood Springs, an art supply store that’s just crammed full of works of local artists. I often have stuff in The Art Center, also in Glenwood. I just put pieces up at Red Canyon café here in Eagle. Other then that, I sell by word of mouth or off my Web site, www.wyrdstudio.com.
Kay Cochran: Effective communication for one. I’m dyslexic; written communication can be very awkward for me. A picture, model or sculpture can convey everything from precise technical information to deep and otherwise indefinable emotions.
Art is a way of seeing and communicating ideas and feelings. It is a part of society’s dialogue with itself. A fair amount of the pieces I’ve been doing lately are light-weight breezy conversations. ‘See this thing, this tree, this deer, this butterfly, this landscape. Isn’t this thing interesting, isn’t it nice to look at?’ To my mind this question comes with another one … ‘Isn’t it important that these interesting things can continue to exist, that they aren’t destroyed or pushed into smaller and smaller pockets until they are nothing more than museum displays of what they used to be?’
2. VD: When did you know that you wanted to be a artist?
KC: When I was a kid I scared the pants off a neighbor lady with a rat I had sculpted. That success should have been a clue, but I didn’t start working as an artist until my mid-20s.
3. VD: What inspires you to create? What kind of mood do you have to be in?
KC: I like to create in the early morning before the daily grind kicks in and when ideas I’ve been thinking about have been processed and distilled by my subconscious during the night. I suspect my subconscious is smarter and more creative then I am.
4. VD: Describe your style.
KC: Decidedly undecided. Presently I’m all nature and landscapes since I’m here in the Rocky Mountains after years in L.A.
5. VD: If you were to meet any artist, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
KC: My tastes are all over the place. Right next to my book on Norman Rockwell is a volume on H.R. Geiger. Georgia O’Keeffe is awesome but so is Frank Frazetta. Velázquez is my favorite of the old masters, but the person I would like to meet would be a Mid-west farmer’s wife. My grandmother died when I was an infant and I don’t remember her but I used to wonder why my grandfather’s house, a place of simple, straightforward tastes, was full of art. I was a teenager before I realized my grandmother had painted them. I’d loved to have had a chance to talk to her.
6. VD: Where do you sell your art?
KC: I’ve been selling out of the Artist Mercantile in Glenwood Springs, an art supply store that’s just crammed full of works of local artists. I often have stuff in The Art Center, also in Glenwood. I just put pieces up at Red Canyon café here in Eagle. Other then that, I sell by word of mouth or off my Web site, www.wyrdstudio.com.
Artist details
Name: Kay CochranMedium: Mixed — Painting, sculpting and watercolor
Location of show: Yeti’s Grind, 330 Broadway, Eagle
Artist reception: Saturday, 5:30 p.m.
More information: Call 970-328-9384
