Local artist a winner in the 2023 Michigan Fine Arts Competition

By Don Rush

The Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center (BBAC) announced the winners of its 2023 Michigan Fine Arts Competition (MFAC), which included 20-year Oxford resident Kirk Roda. The 2023 MFAC recognized nine works of art with cash and art materials prizes totaling $5,500.

Roda’s work, Emotion Basket, garnered him a $1,000 prize. All the works are on display at an exhibition now through Aug. 17 at 1516 S. Cranbrook Rd. in Birmingham. BBAC exhibitions are free and open to the public, Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The 2023 MFAC show, which encompasses all four of the BBAC’s exhibition gallery spaces, features 90 works of art, including pieces from this year’s nine winners, all of whom were hand-selected by Juror, Cris Worley, from the nearly 600 entries across five states.

Roda, 54, grew up in Metamora, and after leaving home for college, living in Ann Arbor for a while, decided to move to Oxford “because how beautiful and quiet it is.”

The walnuts in his Emotion Basket are first sculpted in clay, he said. “Then I made a mold of them, and lastly cast them in resin.”

“I graduated from Eastern Michigan University where I received a Fellowship to earn my Master’s Degree in Sculpture,” he said. “My sculpture reflects an interest in satire and surrealism with a dash of classical influence thrown in for good measure. I’ve been part of many local exhibitions including group shows at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum in Saginaw. I’ve won multiple awards for my work including a purchase award from the University of Michigan. My sculpture is found in many private collections internationally, as well as public collections including the University of Michigan, Dearborn and the permanent outdoor sculpture exhibit on the campus of the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio.”

His idea for making expressive walnuts came when he participated in the 2019 Brushes with Cancer art show. Brushes with Cancer is an art show where a person who is living with, or who has survived cancer, is paired with an artist who then makes an artwork based on their experiences.

“I was paired with Carol,” he said. “From my conversations with Carol, I found a woman who looked cancer in the face and did whatever it took to beat the disease. With a no-nonsense inner strength, she dealt with a litany of complex emotions, but through it all she never let the experience defeat her. So, from the cancer’s perspective, she was a tough nut to crack. I decided to sculpt Carol’s emotional likeness on the outside of walnuts, each one expressing many of the different states of mind she experienced like fear, sadness, calm, grief, physical pain, resolve and joy.

“They collectively represent the feelings Carol had, and still is having, dealing with her illness. I shared this artwork on my Instagram account and had a great response. Several people asked me to make walnut portraits for them, so I asked Carol if she would mind if I made similar ones for others. She said, ‘Go for it’ and I’ve been making them ever since.”

Roda works on his resin walnuts in his studio, located at his home.

“Whenever I sell a sculpture, or win an award, that money usually just gets folded back into my artwork to purchase more materials and supplies. It’s pretty much been a self-sustaining activity for me and also helps with my other hobby of restoring old Volkswagens,” he said.

The annual, professionally-juried, regional art exhibit is in its 42nd year and open to artists from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.