Kelly Shepard-Murray

Kelly Shepard-Murray is a multimedia sculpture artist who creates a range of polymorphic, colourful sculptures. She takes inspiration from the 'natural world' and things such as plants, moss, lichen, fungi and shells. Her output reflects upon the upon the urban environment and humanities devastating impact on nature. The sculptures are made from industrial aluminium and then layered with wax and paint to resemble forms reminiscent of the organic world. Murray follows her intuition and welcomes a chaotic process. The main challenge is choosing how to integrate and organise the collective.

^^ referenced from www.kellysheppardmurray.com

so, I actually discovered the work of Kelly Shepard-Murray after creating my Bioforms, However, there are so many similarities! We both work from similar inspirations and translate the forms accordingly, even the playful approach to making is the same. she says that the hardest part of the work is deciding how to present the forms and I completely agree. If the forms aren't displayed correctly then the whole meaning is changed, they're so abstract that the whole message is down to the format of the presentation. I like how she dosen't ever tell you what they are directly of, but rather explains her influences and allows the viewer to translate the pieces around the setting which she portrays. Despite all these similarities, I absolutely hate the way she dives the environment into "the natural world" and "the urban environment", as if they're completely opposed to one another. She docent knowledge any similarities between the two but instead creates a piece which is subject to the differences. They could really be impactful to reflect upon our shared, evolving environment but instead she tries to bridge a gap which doesn't really exist. I once saw my forms in a similar manor but upon researching and reflecting further into the illusion of "the human world", i'd realised that the bridge between nature was only being put up by myself. Through my works I want all aspects of the environment to be present, but I don't want a conflict, I want them to display something new and exciting, and harmonious.