Jackson Free Press

Artist Kira Cummings pulls out several wire insects with wings made of colorful beads. To make them, she says she takes a big piece of wire and wraps it around a frame many times, and then adds the beads.

Cummings, 28, says her artistic work is often philosophical or based on her interactions with people. She says that the insects are a form of atonement, as she was often cruel to bugs as a child. She also figures that people wouldn't normally buy artwork that features the creatures, so the wire art elevates the insects in a way.

The Jackson native graduated from Jackson State University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in painting and a minor in graphic design. Cummings, who is also an oil painter, was one of the featured artists for the Nasty Woman Exhibition at Bottletree Studios in Jackson on March 23. She says her paintings explore aspects of femininity, and she incorporates objects that "most definitely (resemble) the feminine being," she says, including flowers, fruits and vegetables.

She says she chooses oil as a medium as opposed to acrylic because of the paint's longevity and quality.

"(Oil) paintings have a lasting legacy and come with more financial benefits," she says.

Cummings hopes to create her art as a full-time job one day but considers it a side job right now. She currently works at a local ceramics studio.

She also does pyrography, or wood-burning, and creates images of everything from Pokemon to professional wrestlers to hip-hop artists to animals and other creatures. Some of her wood burnings include one of Eminem and another of the hip-hop group Run the Jewels.

To make these, she sands a piece of wood to make the surface uniform. Then, she takes a wood-burning tool that looks similar to a pen and burns small lines across the surface.

"Closer to the wood would make the burn marks darker," she says. "I've had to practice quite a bit to get the texture just right and all the intricacies involved with the piece to flow naturally."

She says these nuanced artistic mediums challenge her levels of creativity and also make her work more marketable.

"Some people focus on one medium, and that's all they look for," she says. "I like doing all these different things because if I am stuck on one project, I just move to another one simultaneously. Reminds me of my studies at Jackson State: painting and graphic design. Two totally different subject areas. I loved it, though."