Redefined Relics by Kiersten Dykes

Artist Kiersten Dykes is a Salina native who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Visual Art Education, later completing her Master’s degree. She had taught at Salina Central High School for ten years where she worked with ceramics and other forms of visual art. As a current adjunct professor at Kansas Wesleyan, she presented her ceramic pieces at her art reception in the Fine Arts Hall on Friday, January 17. She shared her inspiration for her collection, creation process, and gave attendees a chance to buy her work. 

She pulled her inspiration for her thirty-three piece, Redefined Relics collection from The Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 37 in the Bible. The Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones consists of Ezekiel being brought to a valley of bones and was asked by God, “3 ‘Son of man, can these bones live?'” Ezekiel answers no and he prophesied as he was told to, “5 ‘Behold, I am going to make breath enter you so that you may come to life. 6 And I will attach tendons to you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you so you may come to life’…” Kiersten wanted to draw from this chapter and give animal bones new purpose and to give them life with her art so they wouldn’t be forgotten in the ground to decay.

Her production process involves a laborious outdoor firing process known as “Raku.” Only five pieces can go through this at a time and she puts them in a cage-like kiln that fires them at 1,200 degrees in sawdust in a bucket. Kiersten spends about four to six hours with this blazing process while taking her work out quickly every hour where the ceramics go through shock because of the temperature outside the kiln. A lot of her pieces are raw clay because she loves the look of the matte black. She does use some glaze in her work, though. With the bones that she incorporates with her collection, having worked with bones in Kansas University while attending school, she has always had a love of pulling them into her work. She also uses copper as a glaze on some and copper wire to hold the bones through premade holes in the finished product. 

After the Artist Talk, guests were able to roam, so they could purchase and admire the work Kiersten had put into her collection up close. Within the hour, fourteen works were sold, and the community still has an opportunity to look at and buy until February 14.