Michael McKee, Bronze Sculptor
I am a bronze sculptor working in cast and fabricated bronze on a sculpture series, Bonsai Staircases. The sculptures combine bonsai tree forms with people conveyor systems such as staircases, escalators, elevators and bridges.
The design and construction of this series is the product of a lifetime working in both two and three dimensional art. I have been, each in its own time, a building designer, a builder, a ceramist, a teacher, a lithographer, a gallery owner and manager, a steel and bronze worker, a Japanese koi breeder, and a bonsai gardener. Not until later in my life did I realize the greater power of the sum of the parts. At the time each art discipline seemed to be one life unto itself, but later I came to appreciate the interactions and how important previous knowledge and experiences were to the next stages of my development and artistic expression.
In 1969 after finishing a Master of Arts degree, I became a studio artist, dedicating myself to my work. I was a ceramist for 13 years, producing copious amounts of ceramic sculpture and utilitarian wares, founded a school of ceramics, and worked as a teacher of my craft. My life as a ceramist mostly completed itself by 1980.
In the early 1980s, my passion turned to lithography. My time as a lithographer was informative. I loved color, but missed working with heavy materials, the way they moved in my hands, and the force of my arms as I bent them to my will.
In the mid 1980s I turned to the heavy metals, steel and bronze, and the disciplines of casting, welding and grinding they necessitated. Exhausting but very satisfying exertions. During that same time period I also opened a sculpture gallery that was prematurely closed by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. To quote John Lennon: “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans”. Life then also required me to rebuild several badly-damaged family dwellings.
The new millenium saw my return to bronze casting. Yet another life had begun. I thought of it as, My Bronze Age. The first results are the bronze sculptures from the series, Bonsai Staircases.