Imagination runs wild in Longbranch art studio

Julieann Kohn grinds the surface of a cedar limb section creating a bear candle holder in the outdoor area of her Sound Shores Studio. Photo by Karen Lovett, KP News

Julieann Kohn’s creative mind knows no bounds. She finds images in the unlikeliest of objects and enjoys turning her visions into artistic form.

After their kids were gone, Kohn and her husband Sean Kohn decided to settle on the Key Peninsula. She was attracted here by the large community of artists.

They moved into a home that is steeped in a tradition of artistry and family ties in Longbranch. The house and large unattached art studio were built by her sister Michelle and her husband Bill. They left the trees and built the buildings around them. The house was sold to Sean Kohn’s mother, potter Tricia and her then husband Pat Thompson another artist. Tricia moved out of state. Pat Thompson now has an extensive garden and art studio farther south in Longbranch.

Julieann Kohn modified the potter’s studio to create a more open space to work. There is a covered outdoor work area where she cuts and grinds logs. Cedar, fir and lodge-pole pine pieces are transformed into bears, pigs, owls and other creatures and taken on the roles of candlestick holders and lamps.

The Angel Guild gives her broken lamps and lamp parts. “I’m a thrift store addict,”Kohn said. “I volunteer there one day a week.”

Originally from Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Kohn studied art at Lake Tahoe Community College.

“They have a great art program and have a foundry for bronze sculpture. I studied every kind of art from 1998 to 2012,”Kohn said.

Her first soap stone carving, a dragon, took first prize in the school competition. One school project was a lifelike skier composed from duct tape.

She became a paid teacher’s assistant in the 3-D art studio.

“I used to make custom log beds, but when you get over 50 it becomes too much work. “I’m looking to do more in stone,”Kohn said. “That’s where my passion lies.”

She has silicone bear and wolf prints for sculpture use and is also working on experimental garden sculptures. She is experimenting with resin that glows in the dark.

“I have a project room,”Kohn said. “I’m like a mad scientist. I come up with weird ideas. I’m trying to come up with nautical ideas for this area.”

For information on Sound Shores Studio, call (253) 282-9618.