I discovered Kit Carson’s work through a friend who owns one of Kit’s ‘Pirate” bracelets. Engraved inside is the saying “Bad to the Bone”. (see “Looking for Biker Jewelry?”) I knew his designs would be a perfect fit for my store. Kit Carson, the “Wildest Jewelry Engraver in the West”, is known for his original, bold, naturalistic, curvilinear design, extremely fine detail and a subtle sense of humor.
Inspiration rushes through Kit like a desert flash flood slapping the dust out of a dry arroyo. He observes the rich palette of nature in the desert: a leaf spiraling over itself, the graduating texture of a weathered stone, the voluptous form of the thunderheads, and the accelerating curves of a sunbleached bone. As he notices a rabbit bounding by him, framed over a golden cactus against a turquoise sky, he’s back at his bench working madly, a happy guy. “It is the nostalgic freedom of the western landscape and a return to a natural and simple life that I want to capture in my art”, says Kit. His themes include ravens, dragonflies, cactus, bones, cowboys and anything else he discovers in the desert.