A deeply
creased, time-worn face peeks into the light from a gingham
bonnet in the transparency of water color. A gigantic
10’ congressman looks down on a congressional meeting
room in the house of representatives in
an elegantly framed oil portrait. A larger-than-life-sized
family cavorts in the water of a hospital fountain, their
laughter frozen perpetually in bronze. These are
but a few snapshots of the tapestry of métier that is
the work of Sam McKinney.
•••
Born in 1951 in Lexington, Kentucky,
Sam McKinney spent his childhood in coal studded Fleming-Neon
in Southeastern Kentucky. After receiving an AB and MA
in Art at Morehead State University, he has made Morehead,
Kentucky his home. He resides with his wife, Ingrid and
three year old daughter Jasarae Blue in a log house and
connecting studio, (that he considers a functional sculpture)
reconstructed of eighteenth and nineteenth century structures
designed and built by himself.
•••
A figurative freelance painter and
sculptor for over thirty years, Sam McKinney works mainly
on commission, with portraiture as his mainstay. His
just completed “Adam’s First Breath” soon to be unveiled
and displayed at the Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and
Museum, is McKinney’s tour de force. The 1,800
pound sculpture in bronze and granite has been the focus
of Mr. McKinney’s energies for more than a year and is,
he says, the culmination of everything he has learned
about his art
•••
His work in oils, watercolors and
bronze sculpture are nationally collected by such entities
as political personas: Congressman Carl D. Perkins, accepted
by Speaker of the House of Representatives, (Thomas Foley)
Washington DC, former Governor of KY, Bert Combs, Corporate
founders and collections, e.g. Grove Inc., CSX Railway,
King’s Daughters Medical Center and private and public
memorials and monuments. He is an adjunct professor at
Morehead State University, teaching figure drawing and
watercolor. |
