Near Marshall, Michigan, lives a Latvian sculptor, Viesturs Kalnins. When our paths recently crossed at Eastend Studio and Gallery in downtown Marshall, we talked about our common ethnic ancestry – we share roots in Latvia. I learned that Kalnins has traveled a fascinating journey of place and career. He has worked as a registered nurse in a Coldwater prison. He is a master electrician. He has worked in construction. And he has lived in various places across this country, seeking adventure. We begin by talking about how Kalnins came to the United States after World War II.
“We ended up in Allied camps, or refugee camps,” Kalnins says. “They were called DP camps at the time, for Displaced Persons. By 1950, you had to find a place to go essentially—you were no longer allowed to use those facilities. Most places had to have a sponsor. In the United States, you definitely had to have a sponsor to look after you while you settled in.”
The Kalnins family was sponsored by a church in Missouri. Latvians were dispersed across the globe, Kalnins says, wherever opportunity took them as they realized that returning to Latvia was no longer feasible due to the Soviet occupation.
“Long story short, I wanted to be a physician,” he says. “I love surgery, but it didn’t pan out. I wasn’t attentive enough to get into medical school.”
Kalnins did, however, earn a surgical registered nurse degree to make his way into the operating room as well as a night nurse in a prison in Coldwater, Michigan. After time living in California and elsewhere across the country, he found his way to Michigan to further his education, gain a master electrician license, and meet his wife along the way. The two finally settled in Tekonsha, where he now creates his sculptures of stone, cement, steel, and various found objects.
“I don’t take my art that seriously,” Kalnins says. “Yes, I like to do good work, but I like to have fun doing it and in the process of doing it. And if somebody wants it, and I find that they have it in their yard or something hanging on the wall, that gives me a lot of pleasure. That’s what is important.”
Kalnins’ multimedia works and photography have been displayed in numerous art competitions including the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, Kellogg Community College sculpture installations at campus locations in Battle Creek and Coldwater, the Battle Creek Art Center, and his Big Paddle Waterwheel sculpture at Ketchum Park in Marshall. Several of his sculptures are on display throughout Marshall, in Carver Park and around the traffic circle at Marshall’s Brooks Memorial Fountain. His works are also available for purchase at the Eastend Studio and Gallery in Marshall.
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