Curriculum Vitae of Morgen Kilbourn

See also Sculpture Commissions below

I currently sculpt horses primarily although I have worked in various art fields for much of my life; initially as a freelancer, then as a corporate designer and now as a traditional professional who sells her works. Below is a small sampling of my various dabblings.

I come from a family of artists and art teachers, and yet I avoided art as a career until my late 20's. Eventually I succumbed to the calling entirely and today I am a small horse boarding farm manager and a professional artist. My love of horses has never been in question and it's a wonderful experience to be able to merge these two joys into a full time lifestyle. Many wonderful people have made this possible for me and not a day goes by when I don't think about how grateful I am for their support.


Artistic Professional with broad experience in the traditional arts, graphic arts, web design, and a diverse background in health related fields. Reputation for managing multiple projects with aggressive deadlines from concept through implementation. Combines creative insight with a practical approach to consistently deliver results on time and budget.

Resume
Graphic Design
Web Sites
Flash Animations
Sculpture
Illustration

Download entire document (58kb pdf)


I became a corporate graphic designer after working for a biotech corporation for about 4 years. It was a crash course and light years beyond any classes I'd taken in the subject in college, I was fortunate to have a wonderful team to work with and we never missed a deadline. I have designed everything from virtual presentation CD handouts to billboards. It was a great honor to have the cover design to the left selected by Science's selection committee View Science Cover.

I've done a number of graphic designs, logos and animations for various causes and horse related businesses. Some of which you may have encountered if you are a horse person. Below is one of the prototype samples done for the CANTER organization when they were reforming and reorganizing their network. They still use some of this layered design format today on all 9 of their web sites. Please visit canterusa.org and support this worthy cause!


A small portfolio:

(offline) CuraGen Corporation's Online Version of the 01 Annual Report (flash animation)

(offline)CuraGen Corporation Web Site (multiple designs 2001-05)

(offline) 454 Corporation Web Site (multiple designs 2003-05)

Fox Ledge Farm

Equestrian Arts Productions

Nicker Baskets

Photographer Site PROOF and FINAL VERSION

Site Development DEMO For Autostart Tradeshow CD Handouts

Current Sculpture PRODUCT Marketing Site

Old WEB DESIGN Marketing Site

Medical illustration was once my aim and I did some freelance illustration work for a health magazine while in college. Later I was able to use these skills to also create animations, initially within power point and later when I learned to design in flash. I created many illustrations of tissues like the one to the left, and animated these to demonstrate pathology and treatment mechanisms.

Eventually I turned my flash illustration skills towards my own freelance web site design work as well as maintaining 2 corporate sites created in flash. While those corporate clauses do not allow me to share online many of those works, below are a couple quick fun examples of flash files.

HUMOROUS PARTY INVITATIONS (AUDIO WARNING)

Demo #1 (~74K)

Demo #2 (~109K)

Demo #3 (~184K)


WEB SITES (AUDIO WARNING)

Old WEB DESIGN Marketing Site (entirely flash based) and a very long (>1min!) promo clip (~588Kb - will play differently on different computers)

Photographer Site PROOF and FINAL VERSION

Site Development DEMO For Autostart Tradeshow CD Handouts


 

I've been sculpting in a variety of media my entire life. Soap stone, wood, and kiln fired clays are a few of my favorite media I used quite a bit up through my college years. I also didn't focus initially on horses primarily, in fact I did quite a few abstract works! I've always enjoyed sculpting creatures of character however; be it mischievous, stern or outright goofy. I think that's the one theme I've always found that really draws me into wanting to make (or more aptly put - complete) any sculpture. I still feel that way today when sculpting horses and the occasional silly beastie on the side.

 

I have been drawing since I could hold a crayon I guess. With art teachers on both sides of my family it was a prerequisite to learn skills such as foreshortening and shadowing early on. I was later able to explore a vast variety of media such as oils, pastels, stained glass and silk screening in my grandfather's class room/art studio and my father's workshop/studio. I began selling little drawings at my grandfather's studio when I was about 4 years old (I think they were 10cents each). I am not sure if I could begin to summarize my illustration "career" beyond that save to say that I don't ever remember a period in my life where I was not working on some art projects. I've illustrated for magazines and a few companies as well as taking a few private commissions (from portraits to wine labels). Many of these were before computers were easily accessible and while I have old hard case portfolios, zip disks, overheads and slides of work from the late 80's and early 90's, I have still yet to convert them to electronic media. Below is a very small but hopefully diverse sample of some works.

SCULPTURE COMMISSIONS

  • Bronze
  • Cold Cast Bronze
  • Artist Resins
  • Busts
  • Medallion ornaments
  • Fine Bone China

These are just a few of the options we can discuss regarding your horse portrait commission.

My goal with all portraits is to capture the horse's very individual attitude and expression. Sometimes it's not always possible to study the animal itself, especially for those that have passed away. In some cases I've worked only from one photo, and in other's from video and a compilation of photos for reference.

My background in working with (caring for and training) animals, both small animals and horses, has given me a tremendous feel for their particular personalities and varying attitudes (just like humans!). I am not happy until I've brought that individuality of each portrait out in my art. It does my heart good to hear my clients exclaim gratitude in capturing that 'essence' as well.

All commissions are discussed on an individual basis. Write Morgen at morgen@one-horse.net to learn more.