Kites made by Sandy and Ron Gibian, California

After two years I finally had enough nice photos of Sandy and Ron's kites and I was able to give credit to their artwork. I met them in Junction, 1993, Verdun, 1995, and at the Smithsonian Kite Festival 1996, where they were invited honorary guests. They are a fantastic team of kite artists. In addition they both have a very friendly and giving personality - just the way I really like it. Both are very active when invited as guests to a kite festival - they put kites up in the sky permanently! As funny as it is, Sandy always escaped my camera so far...... While I have some photos with Ron on it, no one with Sandy. Sorry for that. Now to their kite art.

You can see two kinds of kites that characterize the recent work of Sandy and Ron: low aspect ratio kites (long kites) and cellular kites.

Here an example of a low aspect ratio kite done recently. Two important things as tips: notice the splitting of the applique work into handy pieces. It is much nicer to work with smaller pieces when doing applique work than working with really large pieces. Second, colours really make a difference. I don't know what this combination may be called, but certainly the black-white contrast works well. Further is the combination of china gold with light blue very effective.

Inlaws is a recent kite of Sandy and Ron, flying at Verdun 1995 in this case. It is another example of how low aspect ratio kites can look alike. This kite is an excellent example of how to create an effect by combining shape and motif.

This photo was taken in Verdun 1995. The goldfish kite is a bit older then the other kites shown on this page and represents an earlier stage in the artistic development.

Charly Chaplin is also another nice example of how shape and motif can create a powerful visual effect. Important to note here the art element of repetition.

Another very nice low aspect ratio kite of the Gibian's. Interesting on this one in particular is the creation of an three-dimensional effect by reducing the size of the fishes from top to bottom. This can also be seen in Inlaws, but not as clear. Very strong contrasting colours make this kite effective in the sky.

The last low aspect ratio kite shows you that it is possible to create nice effects and kites without very intense sewing sessions :-).