Richard Klyver on His Work—at Eastport Port Authority

The Sunday Afternoons at the Arts Center series continues weekly through April. Next in the series will be artist Richard Klyver with a discussion of his work, on February 9 at 3 pm, at Eastport Port Authority, 141 Water Street.

Well known as creator of the mermaid on the Eastport seawall, Klyver has had an explorative career, highlighted by a three-year sojourn in Africa. Whether expressed in muscular drawings or clad with the permanence of cast bronze, his inspiration has long been subjects full of life and motion—animals, dancers, jungle foliage.

An Eastporter since 1974, Klyver was born in Baldwin, NY, a small Long Island town. He studied fine art and illustration at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, then spent three years in Africa, mostly in Kenya and Madagascar, drawing and sculpting wildlife and people. He learned to cast bronze during a two-year residency at Millersville University in Lancaster, PA, and began solidifying scenes he’d witnessed in Africa, previously only drawn.

About the iconic mermaid, created over a five-year process, he notes his satisfaction with the cast-bronze piece. “Bronze has an enduring permanence and I find I am able to convey my sense of animation and motion through this medium.”

Sunday series programs are offered by donation, with no one turned away for lack of funds. Proceeds will be shared between the presenters and the EAC, committed to sustaining programs like these.