Happy #Juneteenth from @ArtSpanSF! This week’s #WetheArtists features San Francisco native Kristine Mays and her wire art. 

 You can find her sculptures in lavish Northern California gardens, hanging from walls or sitting in galleries in human form. Mays stands strongly by her introspective pieces; for example, her “modern day lynchings and hashtag memorials” sculpture has streamers of white ribbon hanging from the neck embroidered with the names of black people killed by the police.

“I often say that I am breathing life into wire,” says Mays. “I love the idea of creating work where the focus reveals the essence of a person and that speaks to humanity as a whole.”

Mays says most of her works are intuitively inspired. When it’s time to create the physical object, she occasionally uses photography for inspiration, often collecting images that show and embrace movement. 

The sculptures emerge from random shapes Mays builds upon until the final form is complete. “My tools are nothing more than needle nose pliers, heavy-gauge wire, and gloves to protect my hands,” says Mays. “[Lately], I have been fixated on the ancestors. I wonder what the spirits that live among us are saying as they look at us trying to navigate the world.”

Words by #WeTheArtists Guest Curator, Jacqwi Campbell who is spotlighted Bay Area-based artists from June-August 2020.

Feature Published: June 19, 2020
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