Early Thaw of the Northwest Passage

Detail view of installation (through peephole visible from the sidewalk outside gallery window)

Early Thaw of the Northwest Passage

View of installation from inside gallery

Connection (A woman and a juvenile polar bear thinking a rainbow)

Hand-sculpted plasticine figures, vellum, marker, iridescent ink, lipstick, baking soda, soil and gravel in vintage terrarium

11" x 7" x 7"

Mounting

Hand-sculpted plasticine figure, lipstick, iridescent pigment and Arizona quartz in scientific bell-jar

12" x 7" x 7"

Nature Shall Provide (Feral girl with bow-legs and pubic mane)

Hand-sculpted plasticine figure, lipstick, live plants, soil and gravel in vintage terrarium

8" x 5" x 5"

Sibling Rivalry (Love Bites)

graphite on shaped paper

Hungry for More (Nature, Nurture)

graphite, watercolor and gouache on shaped paper

Oh, Give Me a Home

graphite on shaped paper

Spawning II (Egg Release)

graphite, watercolor and iridescent ink on shaped paper

Spawning III (Upstream)

graphite, watercolor and iridescent ink on shaped paper

Whooping Cranes with Polluted Sky

graphite, watercolor and gouache on paper

Terra Incognita

graphite, watercolor and iridescent acrylic on shaped paper

Desert Solitaire (for Edward Abbey)

graphite, watercolor and metallic acrylic on shaped paper

18" x 24"

This piece is dedicated to the naturalist and writer Ed Abbey, author of the gems "Desert Solitaire" and "The Monkey Wrench Gang." The rock formations are based on those at Abbey's beloved Arches National Park. If you look closely, you may find Hopi petroglyphs and ten lizards, each with tiny rainbows around their heads.

The Nebuleaux Showing its Finery (for E.O. Wilson)

This painting, created at the ACRE Residency, is based on an 1835 engraving in R. Havell's "A Collection of the Birds of Paradise." The print's original title was so wonderful that I could not resist appropriating it. With the bird of paradise's special elongated tail-feathers, I have spelled out "Biophilia," a term coined by the inimitable myrmecologist, naturalist, conservationist, and personal hero of mine, E. O. Wilson --- to whom this piece is dedicated.

Witch Craft

I created this piece at the ACRE Residency by plucking the umbels off of several hundred Queen Anne's Lace flowers. This amazing plant, aka Daucus carota, is both the genetic origin of the common carrot and a powerful and widely used medicinal herb and wild food. The roots are edible when young, and the seeds have long been utilized as a form of birth control, first described by Hippocrates over 2000 years ago. Studies have shown that Queen Anne's Lace works in much the same way as the modern birth control pill by blocking progesterone synthesis.

In Europe and the Americas, assistance with fertility control used to be the province of village wise women, who maintained and passed down herbal and medicinal knowledge. These women were often mis-labeled "witches" and murdered by the church or state for practicing their craft. This piece was created for them.

CAVES

graphite and watercolor on shaped paper

15" x 19"

Created at the ACRE Residency, this piece references Jean Clottes theories on Upper Paleolithic cave painting, at sites such as Chauvet, Lascaux and Peche Merle.

Relic from Wunderkammer

found deer skull, hand-sculpted polymer clay, micro-beads, iridescent ink, acrylics, and glue under scientific bell-jar

18" x 10" x 10"

I found this white-tailed deer skull embedded in ice at the edge of Lake Michigan near Green Bay. After keeping it for a year or so, I had a dream where the skull became a sculpture, sprouting little handmade plants.

Selection: 23 Endangered Species

graphite and watercolor on paper with vintage award ribbons

dimensions variable