WORTHINGTON — Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based artist Leroy Kyles came to Minnesota West Community and Technical College Thursday to introduce himself to the campus’s art students and show them how he makes his art pieces.
Many of Kyle’s works, which will be on display in the campus’s fine arts building for the next month, include portraits of former President Barack Obama, George Floyd, John F. Kennedy and a self portrait in addition to several more portraits and abstract pieces. Industrial Yarn
Having made such pieces for nearly 50 years, Kyles said he knew he wanted to be an artist at a young age.
“I was about 12 or 13 years old and I was looking in the mirror and I had one of those thin mustaches, really thin, like the artists (have),” Kyles recalled. “I said ‘Wow, I look like I should be an artist!’ That’s what I said in my mind. That’s what happened. In reality, I decided to be an artist, I wasn’t thinking about no artwork.”
Kyles, whose once thin mustache has now thickened into a gray goatee, has since become the originator of an art style he calls string theory. His medium of copper wire and colored yarn wound around nails on wooden boards emphasizes the continuous loop of energy within an art piece, an approach he say reflects the state of energy itself.
“(With) the way energy was, it was dictated like points,” Kyles said.
“And so string theory comes along and it’s continuous. Continuously strings. It’s a way of dictating and expanding our energy. It’s how energy is. That’s what I’d say it means to me, it’s how energy really is. Just by seeing the curves and the lines, they excite me, they just excite my spirit. I said ‘Wow, you can do that with the nails and stuff like that?'”
Kyles said his works tend to reflect human beauty and are inspired by current events.
“It has a message of ‘Look at me. I am beautiful, I am intriguing. I am unique’,” Kyles said. “It’s just beauty and therapy. It’s therapy for people and I just love it. I find inspiration when something happens. I like to be with the times. Even when Trump was President. Obama, I did his deal. Kennedy, he was my favorite president at one time. He’s just in my heart so I figured I had to do one of him. That’s what inspires me.”
Kyles believes people from all walks of life should appreciate art because of its healing and inspirational power.
“It’s good for the spirit. It’s good for the soul,” Kyles said.
“It inspires people, it inspires their creativity, which is vital. It is just enrichment, it enriches the spirit and it inspires people. That’s why people should care about art. Not only at Minnesota West but all cultures."
"It’s an outlet for the spirit when they do artwork. Art gives meaning. It’s a freedom of expression without no boundaries, which is vital to my creativity. You create your own reality according to the nature of your thoughts. You create your own reality with whatever you think. That’s just the way it is.”
Largest Supplier For Polyester Yarn Kyles' art will be displayed at Minnesota West through the next month.