keith holt

Keith Holt spent 17 years running a gymnastics center in Maryland before he turned to art. The experience in the gym strongly influenced his wood forms and sculptures.

Artist: Grew up close to where he lives now in Forest Hill, MD. In school, Holt took art classes every year and had a teacher who took an interest in helping him develop his drawing and painting skills.

At an early age, Holt started gymnastics and practiced it through high school while also working with a local parks and recreation program instructing beginner gymnastics classes.

He then studied art at Harford Community College, but changed directions and left to coach and manage a junior Olympic gymnastics program.

Eventually, Holt opened a gymnastics center, which he owned for 17 years. In 2010, he sold the gym to pursue art.

Company/studio: K Holt Artwork is in Forest Hill, MD. The wood craftsman works out of two studios separate from his home:

One is an 1,100-square-foot wood studio.
The other is a small 150-foot casting studio close to home.

“My wife runs a small nursery (Putnam Hill Nursery) on the property,” said Holt. “So I am surrounded by beautiful gardens as I work.”

The property helped inspire his latest series: birds.

In the beginning: When he first started, Holt was doing portraits in pastel. The second go-around with art started with him buying a wood lathe at a yard-sale.

“I didn’t have any experience with turning,” said Holt. “But it looked interesting to me.”

After a few years, he started exploring multi axis turning to see if he could create figurative pieces on the lathe. Eventually, he took classes from esteemed wood turners and woodworkers David Ellsworth and Mark Sfirri.

As time went on, the turning became a smaller part of the way he created pieces. Now the general shape is turned and then Holt carves it to create the finished form.

Art & materials: Minimalist sculptures – from the popular bird and head series to the Yin Yang series – start out as wood, but may be cast with modified plaster, concrete and/or bronze for the outdoors ($100 to $20,000).

Must-have tools: Powermatic Lathe, NSK carver, Swiss-made Pfeil chisels and his French-made Auriou rasps.

Inspirations/influences:

His time as a gymnastics coach. Holt often says he traded spinning gymnasts for spinning wood.
Modernism art by Constantin Brancusi.
“Spiritual teacher (Rohini Ralby) challenged me (in my artwork) to use as few lines as possible to say what I am trying to convey,” said Holt. “I have been doing it ever since.”

Fun or unusual commission: A client gave him a few words and asked Holt to create whatever inspired him. In addition, the client also gave Holt the opportunity to work in a much larger scale, three to four feet tall.

Holt created five pieces over the years for the client’s home in Long Island.

Recent honor: Manayunk Art Festival, Philadelphia, PA, Best in wood/sculpture. 2025.

Recent projects:

Casting more carvings for the outdoors.
Turning and carving birds. “The way the figure of the wood plays off the forms of the birds is so pleasing to look at and make,” said Holt.

What’s next: