"Tourist Crow"

Kamilla White

"I try to capture the playful spirit of the crow, to share the whimsy and joy they bring to everyday life."

Kamilla White has observed her local crows for a number of years, and is intrigued by their keen intelligence and their intricate co-evolutionary relationships with human beings. She began using crow and raven imagery in her work around 2001, and developed the current versions of her crow sculptures around 2006. Ms. White plans to continue consulting the corvid community for inspiration and ideas for many years to come.

Kamilla begins each crow sculpture with an inner core of compressed aluminum foil. She then adds legs of steel wire and covers the inner core with an outer layer of black polymer clay. Once the clay is smoothed out, she adds blue goldstone beads for the eyes and draws in wings and facial details with a pin tool. Some crows are embellished further with clay accessories. All are baked in the home oven. After baking, the legs are painted black and the crow is given a charm to wear around its neck on a thin leather cord.

Kamilla White earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from Washington State University. Her affinity for three-dimensional art spilled over into her paintings during her last year at WSU, when she used cast paper masks and body parts in several pieces for her senior thesis project. A minor emphasis in Ceramics allowed her to explore her sculptural inclinations and develop her 3D visions. Kamilla has been using polymer clay in her artwork since the mid-1990s.