John McKinnon Artist

 Welcome to my website

Since the completion of my formal education, I have worked consistantly for thirty eight years  as an artist. The work that I have done throughout my career has been primarily in the dicipline of Sculpture though I have worked also in other media such as painting, printmaking, drawing and mixed media.

As a sculptor, I have worked in many different media.  Stone carving is what I am most known for though I work in other materials such as bronze, welded and forged steel. concrete, wood ,clay, and glass. In short, I use whatever medium will best express my idea.  With this in mind, experimenting simultaniously in various directions has been key to my personal development as an artist.

I have delved from time to time over the years into the more commercial aspects of the art world. printing.   One of the more expressive mediums that I have explored in this area was Printing T shirts, and another was the  making of plaques, monuments and gravestones. These media have helped to inspire some of my later works.

In the past 12 years I have developed an interest in working in the ephemeral arts of Ice, snow and sand.  These non-permanent media have been giving me what I refer to as the Zen-Sculpting experience, and have given me the opportunity to travel, see the world and persue my drawing interests..

My teaching history has been a great inspiration for me. In the early eighties I taught at David Thompson University in Nelson. From the mid eighties until now I taught modern hard stone carving technique to the Inuit carvers in many communities throughout the Canadian Arctic. In 1992 I was involved is setting up the Sculpture Foundation Program through Arctic College in Iqaluit Nunavut  During this period I also taught many courses in Sculpture at the Haliburton campus of Sir Sanford Fleming college in Peterborough Ontario where I still teach.

I have included on my website some images of my ongoing life project, a sculpture garden on my property which is located 8 km. west of Nelson B.C. on Granite road.  This sculpture walk includes not only my work but also the work of many other artists whose work I have had the good fortune to have collected.