Newspaper Page Text
Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com
She (Times
gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, December 14, 2018
Photos by NICK BOWMAN I The Times
Maysville artist Kerstyn Gibbs got her start in animal-based art using shed reptile skin to make jewelry — bracelets, necklaces,
even guitar picks — and now uses ethically collected animal parts to make sculptures influenced by the “oddities” community
in the Southeast.
Kerstyn Gibbs is the artist behind Gibbs Clan
Curiorities based in her home in Maysville. Beginning
with stone beads, Gibbs’ art has grown from the simple
to the strange — focusing on “oddities” sculptures
vthat include ethically-collected animal bones, raw
gemstones and other natural elements.
Kerstyn Gibbs: An
artist to her bones
This Maysville sculptor brings new life to dead things
BY NICK BOWMAN
nbowman@gainesvilletimes.com
Kerstyn Gibbs wants to collect
roadkill.
You might have seen the
26-year-old Maysville artist at the
North Hall Christmas Market or
Mule Camp Market selling wares
that have changed as much as she
has over the years. Reptile skins,
jewelry, animal bones, insects fro
zen in time — if you’ve passed one
of her booths, you’ll remember it.
Originally from Hoschton,
Gibbs started trying to sell her
art as a child being toted to small
trade shows by her mother,
Sheryl Webb. Back in the day,
she was making glass and stone
jewelry.
“At the first one I told her,
‘Mamma, this is what I want to do
when I grow up,”’ Gibbs said, sit
ting on a park bench in Maysville
on a sunny, breezy December
morning.
She’s wanted to be an artist
since she could hold a crayon, but
despite being raised in a conser
vative Christian home in Jackson
County, Gibbs tended toward the
fantastical — bright colors, wild
beasts, unreal shapes.
The medium has changed over
the years, from crayon to pencils
and markers, from plastic beads
to glass to gemstones, from clay to
bone and bugs, but the subject has
been fixed on the fantastic — and
moving gradually into the odd.
Gibbs, who’s quick to laugh
despite being an anxious artist
still finding her footing in North
Georgia (she focuses on her art
while her husband, Caleb Gibbs,
works in IT), traffics in ethically
collected “oddities,” an art and
media subculture that shares a
table in the cafeteria with ste-
ampunk focusing on the old, the
rusted, the preserved.
“Bone mushrooms — that’s
where it started,” Gibbs said,
speaking up from across the
bench after striking on the mem
ory of how she got into the world
of oddities. “I was making bone
mushrooms. I would just take a
little piece of wood and make this
almost fairy garden out of bones
and stuff. I would use snake ver
tebrae for the stalks and sand dol
lars for the tops, and I’d add moss
and crystals.”
Fairy gardens themselves are
a relatively mainstream spinoff
of the bonsai tree hobby — mix
ing meticulous care and design
with miniature worlds. Gibbs’
spin on it took her into the world
of oddities, including a trade
show that recently visited Atlanta
and will come again in February,
where her creations have become
increasingly in-demand.
“It’s a weird culture for some
people, but it’s really popular,”
said Cyndi Moore, a friend of
Gibbs’ and owner of Reigning
Reptiles, a reptile pet and supply
shop in Buford. “It’s nature and
art — why not use what’s here for
art?”
Moore struck up a friendship
with Gibbs when the girl walked
into her store in 2014 looking for
a pet. Through the years, the busi
ness owner has carried some of
Gibbs’ artwork and even given
her some supplies for
her art — shed snake-
skins, not bones.
“I’m a widowed
mom, and it was hard
for me,” Moore said.
“I know it’s hard for
women in general in
this business, and when
I see her, I see that. I try
to give her help because
I wish I had it.”
In the new subcul
ture, she found all
number of supplies of
ethically harvested and
collected bones that
she’s made into the lat
est medium for her art, which
has grown into a series of sculp
tures combining animal parts
with copper, gemstones and other
materials.
Her pieces are unnamed and
are generally presented as scenes
within glass showcases. From
the back of an art-cluttered SUV,
she produced a tall, glass display
case holding a copper tree cov
ered with preserved Asian moths.
At its base sat a raccoon skull
crusted in quarts and raw emer
alds. The animal had been killed
by a car, and she purchased the
skull through one of her oddities
markets.
“I don’t like wasting anything,
so that’s why I do this — I take
what other people would discard
and I put it to use,” she said.
As a whole piece, the display
isn’t intended to jar or to unset
tle — you might not even notice
the particulars without looking
closely and instead see the emer
ald glitter of the moth wings or the
clean copper winding up the glass.
There are others — a deer skull
wound in the center of a rabbit
fur dreamcatcher, a bat skeleton
hanging upside down above a
bed of black gems — that aim for
stronger reactions.
As a matter of fact, Gibbs’
insect pieces are her best-sellers.
She makes small, glass displays
with posed insects on display over
a bed of rough gems.
“People don’t think of them
being dead so much as a mam
mal,” she said. “The mantises
usually go within 30-45 minutes of
the show opening.”
But in the long run, she sees
more and more bones in her
work. The young artist wants to
study taxidermy and, eventually,
have the time and tools to har
vest her own roadkill to
clean and remake into
her art — rather than let
it rot on the roadside.
“It can take six
months to a year to prop
erly clean bones,” she
said.
It comes as no shock
then, to you or to Gibbs,
that her art has been get
ting more and more out
of step with the small
markets that got the
woman her start in the
art world. She plans to
keep visiting Mule Camp
Market in Gainesville, but in the
future will focus on oddities mar
kets while keeping up a social
media presence.
But what might come as a sur
prise is the welcome she gets
from people in the oddities world,
where the unconventional is in
high demand.
“I did really well at the Atlanta
Oddities and Curiosities Expo. I
did really well there — that was
my best show,” she said. “It was
one day, and I beat my best three-
day event (while I was there).
There was not a single second
from the time the doors opened to
the time the doors closed that my
booth was not full. ”
It went so well, in fact, that
she’s considering following the
traveling show into a few neigh
boring states.
“It feels good knowing that I
have put all of this time and a lot
of money into this stuff — and
people are actually really loving
it,” Gibbs said.
‘It’s nature
and art —
why not
use what’s
here for
art?’
Cyndi Moore
Reigning
Reptiles owner
Sculptures from Maysville artist Kerstyn Gibbs combine morbid elements
— animal bones and skulls, some even harvested from roadkill — with raw
gemstones. In this unnamed piece, a raccoon skull decked in raw emeralds
anchors a copper tree covered in Asian butterflies.
After getting her start in community markets like the North Hall Christmas
market, Maysville artist Kerstyn Gibbs is finding a new outlet in the “oddities”
community, which recently had a show in Atlanta where she shows off works
like this sculpture that includes a real skeleton of a hanging bat.
Keep your plants safe from this unsuspected killer
Riding to work today, the sky
was actually blue. What a strange
sight!
It seems like it has rained every
day for the past year. Now add
cold to the wet. To say our soils are
saturated would be an understate
ment. If anyone is running their
irrigation systems, shame on you
— your plants are drowning.
I get many calls and emails
related to plants having some type
of health issue. Most of the time I
can diagnose by asking just a few
simple questions. Far and away
the number one issue related to an
unhealthy plant is too much water.
That’s right, I said it — too much
water. We water our plants way
more than we need to, and we are
drowning them.
Root rot diseases are by far the
CAMPBELL VAUGHN
ecvaughn@uga.edu
most damaging diseases in Geor
gia’s landscapes. They occur in
wet soils with limited soil drainage
or in areas that are over-watered
or remain wet due to location of
gutters and downspouts, air condi
tioning units and slopes; or in our
case, Noah’s Ark-type rains.
All landscape plants (trees,
shrubs and flowers) are suscep
tible to root rot. The most com
mon pathogens causing root rot
diseases are the soil-borne fungi
Pythium, Phytophthora and Rhi-
zoctonia. The symptoms are simi
lar to a plant not getting enough
water with wilting and leaves turn
ing colors.
My simple explanation for what
goes on in root rot fungus is this,
when the soil stays moist for too
long, a slime (root rot) forms on
the actual roots and prevents the
plant from absorbing any moisture
or nutrients. This fungus acts as
as a barrier and then the plant
droops. Then we add more water
because we think the plant is
thirsty. Eventually the root liter
ally rots and dies. Dead roots lead
to dead plants.
There isn’t much we can do
about the deluge of weekly rain
water, but we can do some things
to manage our landscapes to mini
mize disease infestations.
Inspect plants for root rot
symptoms before purchasing
and installing into the landscape.
Sometimes plants that have been
sitting on the shelf at a store has
been watered eleven times a day
for the past four months.
Plants under stress are more
susceptible to root rot pathogens.
If the soils are susceptible to
soaking conditioning (especially
clay soils), try and improve soil
structure and drainage by incor
porating organic matter or good
quality compost. If the drainage is
very poor, you may have to install
some type of French drain. If you
have roof gutters, hard pipe the
water to an area where it can flow
elsewhere.
Do not install plants too deep.
That will not only kill the roots, but
rot the base of the plant.
And when it is raining, please
turn off your irrigation system.
As a general rule, your standard
foundation plants like hollies, box
wood, ligustrum, gardenias and
loropetalum don’t need supple
mental water once they are estab
lished unless it is super hot and
hasn’t rained for a very long time.
Save your plants and your water
bill. Turn back the water and let
the landscapes live.
Campbell Vaughn is UGA Extension-
Agriculture and Natural Resource
Agent in Richmond County. He can
be reached at ecvaughn@uga.edu.