Stargazer
By Ray Kobald, Installed 1999
To view Kobald’s work is an invitation to explore a mystery. Some figures hide behind masks. Some look up under head coverings. All suggest a story. As writer Elizabeth Johnston tells us, “Their attention is reverently engaged in a vastness we cannot see.”
His love of art led him to earn a degree in Industrial Art and Design, with a minor in Fine Arts. A painter and printmaker as well as a sculptor, Kobald taught art for many years all the while pursuing his own work in woodcrafts, painting, and sculpture.
After earning his Master’s of Fine Arts degree, Kobald worked as the Senior Interior Designer for Northern Illinois University while teaching art and design part-time at Waubonsee Community College.
Kobald devoted all of his time to creating whimsical and Native American-influenced art in mixed media and bronze sculptures. His work is highly sought and collected, including in monumental size.
