Sculptures
Trees are magical. They provide the oxygen we breathe, the homes which shelter us, the furniture we rest upon and the heat that keeps us warm. They descend into the earth and reach to the sky to draw life while creating an ecosystem that sustains countless other lives. Trees have an ancient, mysterious story to tell, written in the grain that courses through them. It is these stories that inspire me to use wood as a medium to share my own thoughts and ideas, emotions and sensations. Wood has the ability to convey rigidity and strength as well as fluidity. It can bend and twist and spring, and is often difficult and unpredictable, but the depth of the grain and color and life that comes from it makes it my favorite medium for sculpting.
Below are a handful of the pieces that I have created over the last few years.
Designs
My Designs and illustrations are available to be printed on shirts, bags, wall-hangings, mugs and other items. They can be found on the Bare Arts Store website. Just use the "Place An Order" form, or contact me for pricing (see "Contact" info below).
Websites
Websites are more than just the modern equivelent of the shingle we hang up when we are open for business. They are a chance to connect with an audience using words, pictures, videos and sound to share ideas and feelings as well as information. They are also a platform for that audience to connect back, creating conversations, collaborations and communities.
Background
Since 1995 I have worked, in one capacity or another, as a software engineer. I began by testing WAN management software on Unix servers, then programming automated tests for early e-commerce applications, testing Lotus Notes and Domino and developing automation suites. In 2010 I finally made the jump to web development, discovering the joys of PHP, Drupal, Wordpress and Javascript. The web is a very different place now, but the fundamentals remain the same: listen to the client, make a plan to solve their business needs and build it with the technology that best fits the situation. Not everyone needs a full-blown CMS with automated marketing funnels and customized themes. Sometimes a basic brochure site is enough. I've helped clients by building basic static pages, simple animations and one-off landing pages. I've also built component-driven design corporate sites, crowd-sourced video upload integrations, custom modules, plugins and themes for a variety of content management systems and e-commerce solutions, user portals, blogs, contests, CRM platforms and, once upon a time... animated GIFs.
Services
I can provide consultation and guidance to help you determine the best approach for your website needs as well as project-management if the scope of your project warrants it. Then I'd be happy to help, whether it's troubleshooting a site that's been hacked, migrating to a different host or platform or building a brand new site from scratch. If you need video production or editing, sound recording or interviews then I'd be glad to help with that as well.
Please feel free to reach out and have a conversation with me to find out how I can help you navigate this wild, weird digital world.
About KBear Creation
Throughout my life I have made stuff. Early on it was drawings, sculptures, forts, costumes, improvised musical instruments, swords and laser guns made from sticks. There was always a story behind each creation. Everything tied into trying to communicate something bigger. I was fortunate to have performers in my family and received encouragement when I discovered my love for acting when I was young. My mother is a gardener and a teacher. My father is a carpenter and an artist. They are both storytellers and I inherited their passion for sharing ideas and experiences with other people.
As a young adult the world of computer programming gave me an avenue to learn and create information systems, interfaces, and knowledge management tools. All of those were ways to share ideas and collaborate in new ways, while also paying the bills. For nearly 30 years I've tapped away on keyboards, moving bits and bytes around. That whole time, though, I was also drawing, building, doing theater, film, improv, voice-acting, writing stories and creating roleplaying games. I learned to shoot and edit video, telling stories with moving pictures and sound. Some of my favorite videography jobs were weddings, where I could ask friends and loved ones of the couple to share stories on camera for them to enjoy later, sometimes in languages I didn't understand, but the feeling was always wonderful.
I have created art througout my life, but only recently have I turned my sights on doing it professionally. There are so many way to tell stories that I can't limit myself to any one medium. Recently I have returned to woodworking and sculpture, inspired by the work that I grew up watching my father Jim Baringer do in his shop. I've found that wood has a quality that imbues any sculpture with a deeper meaning than just the shapes carved out by the artist. It has the history of a lifetime told in it's grain that cannot be manufactured, but it can be explored during the sculpting process and incorporated into the story that a piece tells.
In addition to woodworking and sculpture I am involved in creating drawings and illustrations, both by hand and digitally, for fantastical and wonderous stories brought to life by tabletop roleplaying games like Trove, the game created by me and my partners at Tumbledie Games. I've had lots of fun designing the cover of the Trove Foundation rulebook and other pieces for the game and look forward to growing my portfolio of work to ignite the imagination.
Finally, I am still tapping on those keys, building and managing websites and custom web applications, helping people to find their own audiences and tell their own stories. My plan is to leverage those skills as well as video and sound to build a community of people who enjoy the stories that I have to tell and the ideas that I have to share, and to help them to do the same.
If you have a story to tell or you get inspiration from the work that I do and want to help me do more of it, then I hope you'll reach out and talk to me about how we can get those ideas out into the world together.