Every commission is a singular work, conceived and made for one person and one story. There is no other like it.

A commission begins with a conversation. You tell me what you are holding, who or what you are honoring, what you want to remember. From there, I listen, and then I begin.

I want to say plainly that this work is one of the deepest privileges of my practice. To be trusted with someone’s story and to find a way to hold it in physical form, that is not something I take lightly or for granted. It fills me. Every single time.

These pieces are relics in the oldest sense of the word, and souvenirs in the original French word “souvenir”, to remember. They are ethereal three-dimensional scrapbook pages. A wedding, a birth, a child’s milestone. A home finally found, a journey taken, a person loved, and an animal who was family.

They hold whatever matters, in whatever form that takes.

The preliminary conversation is the most important part of the process. We talk about the subject, and we talk about what wants to be held and how. I listen for what comes through and stay open to wherever that leads. Some of the most unexpected and beautiful directions have arrived in those early exchanges, things neither of us could have planned.

Materials are part of that conversation, too. I work from my own sources, cast and carved plaster, resin, gold and metal leaf, botanicals, minerals, and materials harvested from One Feather Ranch. But I also encourage clients to bring something of their own. A fragment, a flower, a feather, soil from a place that mattered, something worn or handled or loved. When a client’s own materials find their way into the piece it becomes something neither of us could have made alone.

What I do not do is photograph or share commissioned work. Ever. I keep no record of it, not even for myself. Once a piece ships, it is entirely gone from my hands and my files. It belongs completely to the person it was made for. If they want to share an image of it living in their life with me later, that is a gift. But it is never expected or asked for. This is not a policy. It is how I understand the nature of this work.

Sometimes life does not wait. Memorial commissions and other time-sensitive pieces can often be accommodated on an expedited timeline. Reach out, and we will figure it out together.

Pricing

Individual commission prices begins at small intimate works and scale from there based on size, complexity, and materials. Larger architectural or institutional pieces are quoted individually. A deposit is required to begin. The standard timeline is three to five months from the start of our conversation to completion.

To begin

Reach out at kimpuppy@mac.com or 1-503-896-6958. Tell me what you want to remember. We will go from there.