"Art saved my life," Speiser says.

After escaping highschool gym class long enough to get out of highschool, Speiser attended Rhode Island School of Design, where after graduation he then served on the school's faculty before becoming a full time sculptor.

In the words of Bruce Helander, former editor and publisher of Art Express Magazine and frequent contributor of collages to The New Yorker, Speiser has "the intuitive gift that all conductors of visual poetry must have -- to keep dissimilar parts spinning at the same time, and to fine tune them into an aesthetic balancing act with a provacative twist."

Speiser is unusual as an artist because he is more interested "in how he can make an image" than he is in the image itself. He has a love affair with materials that must exasperate his wife of fourteen years, Providence photographer Constance Brown. His restless, rapid-fire intelligence is always searching for new and better methods to achieve whatever goal he has set for himself.

Today Providence artist Speiser fuses functional materials into astounding artworks. Vases are constructed from rubber garden hose; paintings from IRS tax forms and exotic prints from rusted wire and nails. Speiser explores traditional forms of art with untraditional materials. And each time he sets a problem for himself, "he starts from ground zero."

Speiser's work has been shown extensively in museums, exhibitions, and galleries. Today, he works from his very private studio in Providence, creating works of art for clients from around the country.

His series of prints on exhibit, titled "A Rabble of Sports," is based on rare aberrations of butterflies called - "Sports" - that do not fit any known classification. The prints are not meant to describe butterflies, but to showcase the individual one-of-a-kind rarity in a series of rarities through the process called monoprinting, a technique that produces, as its name implies, one-of-a-kind images.

To achieve these individual effects, Speiser constructs the original printing plates from Homasote (a cardboard-like building material). He nails steel wire to the Homasote in the shape of a butterfly, then sprays the shape with water and lets it rust. When the wire and nails have developed a rich coating of rust, Speiser places wet paper on the plate, clamping it down. After a period of time, he removes the paper to reveal the finished print. The rusted image has transferred from the metal to the paper. Rust (Iron Oxide) has long been known for its chemical stability and light fastness.

It's no surprise that large corporations, small businesses and public institutions have found Kenn's vision appropriate for their site-specific projects. His work has included installations and consigned works for companies such as Reilly Law Associates, Anchor Tape, and Prudential Insurance. He has also made his contribution to the statewide public art effort with large outdoor works like a concrete relfecting pool, a zebra-striped log for the Proivdence Parks Department and more ephemerial outdoor works like the his floating "wind lillies" in Waterplace Park.

Visit Speiser's website at http://www.speisersculpture.com and keep an eye out for his work in a long long list of businesses and artshows. Some of his work is on permanent display at the Bert Gallery, directed by Catherine Little Bert, at 540 South Water Street in Providence (http://www.bertgallery.com/html/gallery_sculpture.htm). He also belongs to a group of artists called "19 on Paper" (http://www.nineteenonpaper.com/kspeiser.html).

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