bevis gallery 

..."I thought (his work) was real important and should be seen here. The idea of what he is doing is much more powerful than people realize. To me, taking these dead animals and making their memories live on forever is a strong way to make a statement."

[Jeff] Patrick was struck by the intensity of Bevis' bronzed birds.

"They're not just dead birds, they're weird dead birds," Patrick says. "At first glance it's a pretty bronze. The patinas are just right and everything is just so. But after the first glance, you realize there's something definitely wrong with this picture."

The bird forms are crumpled, broken, unlike posed animals. The road kill pieces reveal the same indignity of death twisted necks, legs bent at unnatural angles.

"I was surprised, when I saw the actual pieces, at the power this lifeless form has. I am not turned on by bronze casting, and certainly not bronzes of 'live' animals. . . . His castings of these dead animals are almost stronger than the dead animals lying on the beach. He has removed them from context and placed them on a pedestal as a monument to mankind."

Lynn Smallwood of Seattle Weekly, in a Jan. 27 review of Bevis' "Road Kill" art, called it "mocking, grisly stuff . . . simultaneously puerile and grim . . . an odd amalgam of lingering adolescent humor and technical skill.

"Bevis has actually managed to improve on life, adding entrails here and there, just for effect. . . . This confluence of absurdity and perception reinvests these lifeless forms with bizarre significance. If we won't stop to look and see what we've killed, Bevis will happily rub our noses in the remains."