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"Nicaragua Tom" Kepping is an international
artist, working and living in Bozeman, Montana. Formerly of
Singer Island, Florida and Granada Nicaragua he was born in New York
City in 1959 and raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The
Eastern Shore was and still is a beehive of activity for waterfowl
decoy carving – hence this was his first introduction to the arts.
All through his
life he has been involved with the visual arts beginning with wood
sculpture and pallet knife painting in the 70’s and early
80’s. After a business career stint, he became a full time
professional artist in ceramics in the 90’s then moving on to the world
of glass sculpture. His first studio was in Granada,
Nicaragua where he did mostly design work and oil paintings.
Further expansion into the glass world found him dividing his time
between Nicaragua and Singer Island, Florida.
Nicaragua Tom has an
unusual and entropic way of working with glass. As he
formulates his own colored glass, a process is created where by unique
blending yields distinctive results both in finish and
texture. Several different sculpting methods based upon
design requirements. Generally speaking, a base cullet glass
is heated to between 1700° & 2100° where coloring is
added. The molten glass is then gravity cast and manipulated
using stainless steel instruments. Work is then cooled and
then reheated for reshaping and polishing.
Copper and
aluminum are used as the base metals used for mounting and display thus
making the work scalable in size. Aluminum is an excellent
material as it is malleable for forming and welding and is also light
in weight - a plus for larger pieces. The use of copper also
provides a unique blend of finishing via
polishing or patina.
His work has been
shown in Florida and Central America with public and private showings
in Nicaragua and Costa Rica and resides in private collections.
Environmental Statement
Working
with glass can be environmentally unfriendly. We strive to be as green
as possible in our usage of electricity and chemicals. You will notice
that some of our pieces have a white grain on the back. This is becauce
we do not use toxic acids to complete the cleaning. We would rather be
"Green" and have a little white on the backs - we hope you agree.
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