EP 7: "The Art of Installation Meets The Art of Creation", with Kevin Chambers

This week Kelly and Caralee welcome a guest whose work truly embodies the phrase "art in motion", Mr. Kevin Chambers, the creative force behind kevinchambersart.com .

Known for his evocative sculptures and ability to bring raw materials to life, Kevin shares his process of turning vision into tangible form. 

In this episode, Kevin opens up about:

• The intersection of fine art and interior design, and why installation matters as much as creation. 
• How art challenges both the form and function of business.

Listeners will gain not only a deeper appreciation  for the business of art and Kevin's work, but also how art transforms the spaces we live and work in. 

Visit Kevin Chambers at kevinchambersart.com and see how he's shaping the art world, one work at a time. 

Thank you for tuning in to On the Move – The Art of Installation. If you’re as passionate about details as we are, hit “subscribe,” and join us for insights, stories, and strategy from the field. If you’re ready to work with a team that moves with purpose, professionalism, and polish. Reach out to us at www.caudelle.com or follow us on, Instagram @caudelle_installation. Check out our BLOG, The “WHITE GLOVE JOURNAL”, where you can find our show notes and updates.

Transcript

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CARALEE: [00:00:00] To on the Move, the Art of Installation, a podcast by CAUDELLE Interior Installations, where we unpack the details that bring design visions to life anchor point, clipboard at a time.

We're thrilled for joining us for a deep dive into the art and precision of installing 2D and 3D works in residential, commercial, and curated spaces. At CAUDELLE, we believe that installation is more than just a final step. It's a collaboration between vision, material we believe that installation is more than a final step. It's a collaboration between vision, material, and space. Sculptural and dimensional work presents unique challenges, weight, balance, substrates, and visibility from every side.

The wrong approach can compromise both safety and design intent. That's why we approach each install like an extension of the creative process with careful planning, informed placement, and clear communications with artists, fabricators, and designers. So whether you're placing a site specific commission anchoring a mixed media [00:01:00] wall piece.

Or floating a framed work in a stairwell. This podcast is for you because installation just isn't about how it hangs. It's also how it holds up, stands up and tells a story. I'm CARALEE 

KELLY: And I'm Kelly. Today we're exploring what it takes to install sculptural and dimensional artwork with confidence from understanding materials and mounting needs to navigating structural surfaces and site constraints.

This is where technical skill meets visual finesse. 

CARALEE: Exactly. Whether it's bronze, resin, canvas, or steel, we're talking about the kind of work that transforms the space in thoughtful logistics that make it safe, secure, and spectacular. 

KELLY: That's right. We're talking about 3D Yard, not just paintings and prints, but the big pieces.

The ones that require careful planning, strong anchors and installers who know what they're really doing, which is why I'm very thrilled to welcome today's guest, my buddy, Kevin Chambers, who is a professional sculpture and [00:02:00] fabricator who's worked on public art commissions, high-end interiors, and everything in between.

Kevin, welcome to the show. 

KEVIN: It's great to be here today. 

CARALEE: So, Kevin, let's start with your world. You're a professional sculptor, but you're also a fabricator. What can't you really do?

KEVIN: In this world, you learn to say yes to a lot of things and then, work to figure it out.

I think that's probably the most interesting. Part of being a sculptor. It's a constant state of problem solving and what makes it interesting to me, 

KELLY: when you first get started in this business, it's so hard to say no to anything.

You're getting started, you want to work, you're always worried am I gonna be good enough am I gonna do it? It's the challenge of, getting someone to throw something at you and Can I pull it off, 

KEVIN: Yeah.

I mean, there's a whole point where you're just looking for the work for a while. And then the work comes. You don't wanna say no because maybe it's not exactly the thing you see yourself doing, you figure it out, one thing to figure out the work, but then it's also figuring out all the other steps.

So how's it [00:03:00] going to, be finally realized, it's one thing to make it in a studio, but how do you get it from the studio to where it goes? That's where the network comes in and finding people that can help you do that.

KELLY: As a sculptor fabricator, when you're working on a large custom piece like that, what's your biggest concern when it comes to actually doing the installation? 

KEVIN: It depends on the piece.

As you know, we've worked on many different things together. Some are, 500, 600 resin leaves hanging from a ceiling, 

CARALEE: right. 

KEVIN: You know, 30 foot sculpted lava running down a wall. I mean, there are gonna be approached in different ways. So some of 'em, it's fairly straightforward to me as how it needs to install.

But it's knowing that I can count on somebody who thinks like me, understands how the piece needs to look in the end and is not concerned with, okay, all we gotta do is stick it in the ceiling. We come together as a team to make this needs to look like this.

CARALEE: Well, I think you're trying to hit on the communication, right?

KEVIN: So I think when you said what's the biggest pro, I'm trying [00:04:00] to think through. When you're making the piece, there's a point where you're just making the, how is that getting made?

Mm-hmm. But then it naturally transitions to, okay, now I need to start solving. How it actually installs, 

KELLY: Design and fabrication is one thing, but then you hit a point where you're like, now how's this going to actually, go up on the wall or in the 

KEVIN: Fortunately we've done this long enough to know some of the. Hurdles that can happen. So you start, I've learned, start thinking about installation very early on, right? So a lot of times now, even when quoting a job, I'm already reaching out to you guys to hear your thoughts, if I'm thinking about it right from the beginning, a lot of times Kelly's like, oh, you know what we could do is this. And that changes my way of thinking, 

KELLY: you hit on us doing jobs together and we've been doing it for years from art installs to sculptural installs,

what I think is a wonderful combination is early on you had to install your own stuff. Thank [00:05:00] goodness you've gotten to a point in your career where you lose money when you're installing, you're a sculptor, a fabricator, you have concepts that you have to deal with.

I'm lucky enough to where you have confidence in our company to install your piece because we have to become an extension of you. 

CARALEE: And I think, hitting on the topic of communication between not only the artist but installer, as soon as possible really becomes important. You mentioned your, lava sculpture that was, melting down the wall.

What do you think are some, problems that designers, or clients don't really anticipate when they, see a sculptural piece and they want that, what have you experienced in your time that you're like, oh, this is something that's always overlooked? 

KEVIN: We can take the lava one.

It's probably a good example because when it was presented to me, we have a quote request for this sculpture. It's really crazy. Take [00:06:00] a minute to look it over. I don't know if it's even in your wheelhouse. I looked at it 30 minutes.

I had three or four ideas about how it could be made. They approached me saying, this can't be made. They had gotten quotes from other people who had just went way to the right real fast. With why they thought it needed to be made, which made it extremely expensive, hard to install, hard to transport everything.

And I said, no, I've got. Ways we could do this. And then I said, you also have the installation team that can handle it. Like you mentioned Kelly, early on it was, you're doing your own installations. I never. Wanted to do that. It was the client comes to you and says they want turnkey, right?

Yeah. So they are like, when you quote it, they don't want to deal with how does this get from A to B? How does it get on the wall? They understand the hurdles that are there, but as they, you're going, oh yeah, I can do all of that. And then you go on a few installs and what we learned, unfortunately, you know, the hard way a couple times was.

You need to be working with a professional art [00:07:00] installation team. As the artist, unfortunately, you're not generally taken very seriously on site they look at you as, oh, here's that pain in the ass artist coming and put his piece in. Yeah. Where I've learned that when you bring in a team like CAUDELLE, it's a different mood.

All of a sudden they're like, oh, the installers are here. Mm-hmm. Partnering with the installers, which is perfect. I love being there. I love helping, I'll jump in and help. I'm part of it making sure the vision is coming together,

the whole team is what makes it happen. 

KELLY: And the way you hit on that, the casino project, actually had multiple, phases, in one install, we had the lava sculpture, and then upstairs we had several hundred, leaves. Hanging from the ceiling.

CARALEE: Of the project. 

KELLY: We've done birds, leaves flowers but what I was gonna hit on is, we talk about communication designer artist or whomever. Communication is so key because, Kevin says, look, this is what we've got.

This is what they're [00:08:00] looking for, we discuss the best way to happen. Leaves or birds or whatever it was out in California. They had the ceiling backed. So, you could basically just install all of these, sculptures hanging off of eye hook, because it, it was all, underneath the, drywall

and this casino, that wasn't the case. You have to be careful because it's a wallpapered ceiling. They were very fond of, yeah, very hot. Always. You know, you have to, or you doing anchors? Are you doing this? Are you doing that? The communication.

And of course this starts with Kevin or whomever you have to ask the question, is the ceiling prepared for it? Then. We talk, how do you want to do the backing of the sculpture? How do you want to attach it? Whether we're having to use wire, fishing line, there's so many different avenues

you know, [00:09:00] we have multiple conversations about projects that don't even come to fruition because you have to 

KEVIN: prepare if we don't do that, then you end up getting caught. With your pants down later I guess. Because the worst thing you can do is get to site.

So now everybody has scheduled, you're on site, you've got multiple people, you've shipped stuff there. You 

CARALEE: myself 

KEVIN: may have flown there. The studio, as you mentioned before, is now not making money 'cause I'm not in it. I need to be there working and that's how the business works.

So me being out on a site is costing immediately and then you get there and realize, the hardware we had specked the whole time, doesn't fit this wall. You can't use it. And where's the closest Home Depot? Home Depot isn't gonna have 8,000 of these things that you need to have.

So now you've wasted everybody's time. And it gets really expensive. A little upfront thinking, can save you a whole bunch down the road. Especially with these big installations what we do is always custom. Even if we're making 500 leaves, different leaves.

We didn't pull it off the catalog shelf and [00:10:00] say, okay, last week we did 800 leaves over there, so we're just gonna do it. Everything is a new job and a new way of doing it. Even though you try to think ahead and say all the way back at quoting, like, Hey, we need that ceiling.

Plywood back so we can screw right into it and hide all the hardware.

They may say they're doing that, but then you get there and you're looking at an 8,000 foot. Hallway. And we drill the first hole. There's no plywood in there. And so now you're like, okay, well the thing we planned the whole time isn't there and isn't gonna be done.

They make it a point to tell us how much per square inch that wallpaper cost, and it's not coming down. And we'd all like you to hang the leaves, but don't screw through the wallpaper. Exactly. So you didn't gimme plywood, right. Oh, and, we're promising you three scissor lifts to use.

However you want. Immediately those are taken away and we're told, maybe you can get a ladder. When you go back to your question, what's the hardest part? That's the hardest part, is that even though you do all this planning that me and Kelly like to do, you still gotta be able to get there on site and assume all that went out the window.

Yeah. You can still do the [00:11:00] job 

KELLY: You have to be able to think on your feet. You've flown there, we've driven there. All of this stuff is going on. The designers coming in later that day, and you get there and all this happens. You're talking about thousands of dollars.

And you better be able to come up with a solution, whether it's our fault or not,

KEVIN: it becomes our situation. neither one of us is first thought is, okay, who's to blame here?

Right? Me and you both look at each other and go, okay, well let's, we'll figure all that later. Let's figure out to get job. Let's keep it done. Then we'll worry about that. When we were in that job, the Port of Prints job. There was one other artist on the side, I'm not gonna say who it was, but his stuff got shipped there.

It was damaged. They mishandled it, and he was very upset when he got there threw a fit and walked off the site and sued the client my stuff was in the same shape. I didn't have anything to do for a couple of days. I'm sitting there, I'm booked, but I got nothing to do.

Kelly's team's working everywhere. I said, sitting around is no fun. I was like, can I help you guys hang stuff? So I'm running around with him, which I think, then we had that conversation. Well, you just make it happen.

CARALEE: Yeah. 

KEVIN: Gotten it on the ceiling where no one would've seen [00:12:00] anything different, made everybody happy. Right. And at that point I said, yeah, I'm never gonna be that guy. I don't care what the ego is with the artist. There's a point where it's like, okay, I gotta make this happen.

'cause everybody else's time is being used here. So you just jump in and figure it out. 

KELLY: it's like teamwork though. And you know, like you said, if you wanna sit in a hotel room, watching one channel of news all night. 

CARALEE: Well, 

KEVIN: especially there when we were instructed to never leave the door of the hotel because we might get chopped with a machete.

KELLY: escorted from the hotel. To the, job site. But yeah, you know, not like you're trying to cheat someone. I definitely don't want anybody to ever think, oh, if it breaks, we're just gonna touch it up and hide it.

KEVIN: That's not what I'm saying, 

KELLY: but what I'm trying to get the listeners to understand is there are situations where you can resolve a larger problem. Even if you were to say, let's get this repaired. Let's get it on the ceiling. Let's at least let them open. And then we can always, shoot another down and come back and do it.

It's not a matter, [00:13:00] of. Who's at fault fix a situation. Don't poke the bear. Give the bear something to eat. Let's figure it all out first. 

CARALEE: cementing relationships that way, yes, we are, paid for our services.

There's an exchange happening. you're delivering your creative vision that you have put your time and work and effort into, and that you're proud of. And you wanna see it come to fruition. They wanna see it come to fruition. And also, , by cementing that, you're also getting more jobs in the future, you're really creating a relationship with the client or

the designer if something happens to it, they're calling you back and saying, Hey, can you come back and look at this? Or, we have another property and want something similar. 

KEVIN: I know, at one point dealing with Faulkner Locke that hired us for a.

few sculptures and we were gonna go there and be on site and do it. I was talking to, about, you know, what's the client did this on there, we're gonna have the backing, whatever. She said, you never know. I just know when it's Kevin and Kelly.

Then I just stopped worrying about it. She's like, it's immediately off my [00:14:00] plate because you guys we'll just figure it out. Mm-hmm. She goes, I'm not gonna get 40 phone calls on install day. If we can't do it. She's like. I get an update that, hey, this isn't, but hey, I think in a couple hours we're gonna call you and let you know what we figured out.

We'll say this is the situation. 

KELLY: And this is our 

KEVIN: ideas to 

KELLY: Just so you know, if you need 

KEVIN: to get on the phone, like when they were taking the scissor lifts away from us. And the head of construction. needed 'em. And I understand everybody had their job, but you know, he said you don't understand how much these construction workers are being paid and they need these scissor 

And I was like, I don't think you understand. They flew us here to literally put these, so I was like, you know what, it's not worth the argument. You call up the chain and say, Hey, just so you know, I'm sitting on my hands because, and you know, 35 minutes later this comes back down the hallway because, and that's where they're coming in to do their job.

'cause they depend on us. They know we're gonna do it. Yeah. If, if you don't take the tools away, but like, there's certain things we can't do. You can't get 40 feet into a ceiling without, right. But, you know, sometimes you're figuring it out. 

KELLY: Right. Well, [00:15:00] I agree. And we laugh all the time.

we can sit here and talk for days about stories on job sites and stuff like that. Kevin, what would you say to a young artist or fabricator, getting ready for their first 

KEVIN: job, their first install? I mean, we've touched on it a little bit, but number one thing especially getting into this business, if you're gonna be on a site, is communication.

there are no dumb questions in my opinion. Get it in writing, I have some clients that get a little. Annoyed at this, but I keep everything in an email. I will have a phone conversation. Of course.

But I always say, let's write this out in an email. then everybody can come back to it and say, Hey, we said here it was gonna be. communication is number one. Get involved as much as you can. You can't just make the art.

I always tell the consultants and the designer I know they want to try to keep the artist from the client or from the designer because they don't want you going, around which, that's never my goal.

I want to know as much about the space as I can. So I would tell the artist, learn the [00:16:00] space. Ask What room's this going in? Are there windows around it? What's my door access? What's going on the floor? Are the lights around? I don't know how many times I've shown up to put something on the wall and they hung a fire extinguisher.

It's true. Right in the middle of where the a's gonna go and you're like, did that have to go there? But if we would've been brought in really enough and asked the right questions, we could have said, Hey, on the plans, I see a strobe here. Can we put that over here? 

So you'll be much happier.

It's as much communication as you can have all the way down the line. What we now do is bring in our own install team. I solve that problem for 'em. They want it to be turnkey when they approach me. I say, look, I don't do install, I'll supervise, but I work with this company.

So I'm giving you the solution. I'm giving you a transportation solution and an install solution and I'm involving myself in it. But I'm also smart enough to say I'm an artist, not an installer. I need to do the art side of it. And there are professionals who will do that next step of it.

For advice to anybody getting into this as much communication as you can have and try to think through all your steps. Don't wait till the end [00:17:00] when the piece is done to then start thinking about how you're gonna hang it, especially a sculpture world.

When you're making, this is a lesson in itself. Like we do some pieces that are, let's say 2,500 pieces, right? Say you're making a piece that's 10 pieces and you need 10 screws that go in the back, no big deal.

But if you're off in your quoting, when you're doing something 2,500 times and you're off by a quarter, 

KELLY: it 

KEVIN: adds up. 

KELLY: You can't 

KEVIN: just run out and go, okay, well now our stainless screw that goes in the back is $14 more, so let's order 2,500 of 'em. You've gotta really think through your.

If you're gonna do any kind of production stuff, especially. Every little bit 

KELLY: common theme that we're seeing here in all of our, podcasts is communication. 

KEVIN: artists are notorious for not being good communicators. 

CARALEE: That's why we make art. 

KEVIN: You, I say you wear a lot of hat in this business, but get out, take off your heart attack and put on your management hat a little bit. Right? In my work, you hear me say we all the time. Mainly my wife Lauren a big part of the business and she's a much more business brain than mine.

You know, I'm good at figuring [00:18:00] things out in the creative, but she's really good at saying, okay, here's what needs to actually happen. Sometimes you need that. As a new artist, don't think you gotta do everything. Find the people that can help you put the package together.

CARALEE: Yeah. Like you said, making a team. And realizing like, Hey, I need help with this aspect. Or like, I'm not able to think about this. Like reaching out, like you said, there's no dumb questions. Mm-hmm. If you've never, especially you've never done it before. I mean, you, you know, well, if you've done it 400 times, 

KEVIN: Sculpture particularly is not a single person sport.

It takes a lot of players. To do these big pieces and you gotta get outta your head that you're gonna do all of that. 

KELLY: There has to be a team effort. Communication and team aspect is, definitely a common thread here. It takes a lot of, communication talent from designers, sculptures, artists, photography, anything.

As an installer myself, I look at all of these trades that I work with, you know, in this [00:19:00] business and am impressed of how good they are at their jobs and how. It still takes a team to get it. 

CARALEE: It's respecting that talent, respecting time, respecting each other's roles in that team and being able to communicate that.

And I think that's what makes, when an install comes together and is perfect. Like that's what is the oomph factor being able to be like, we did it all together and here it is. Kevin, thank you so much. Peter, thank you for helping us highlight the skill and care that it takes for, stunning sculptures and fabrication and how to install it the right way.

Thank you again for coming on. 

KEVIN: It's wonderful to be here. Excited slash nervous

CARALEE: do you want to, share any of your social, I know you, have classes. You just moved studios. 

KEVIN: we're in the middle of a move now. social, Instagram's, Kevin Sculpture, websites, Kevin Chambers art.com. My wife's also a. Very accomplished photographer, Lauren Chambers [00:20:00] photography.com.

I think you might be hearing from her on a future episode 

KELLY: So if you're working on large scale pieces, non-traditional materials and tricky spaces, remember the Ryan Install isn't just a tool anchored in excellence. 

CARALEE: Thank you for joining us on On the Move, the Art of Installation.

Until next time,