Artist's Statement: 

Connecting in the world and on a deeper level is what has led me to want to reimagine outdoor sculpture. I feel a deep, undeniable connection to nature and no separateness from it. In contrast to large scale pieces that jut out of the ground, dominating both the viewer and surrounding land, I am designing outdoor sculptural pieces that serve the nature they live in. As an Eco-Artist, I am not making work illustrating the catastrophes of environmental degradation but making works of hope and care that serve to replace lost habitat for native species. These pieces unite my love for sculpting and drawing people in, with my love for and concern for the natural world. They are born of scientific study and are ever evolving with climate change and discoveries made in the scientific community. The work is designed to delight both humans and insects alike. When insects thrive, birds and mammals thrive, we all benefit. I am in ongoing consultation with entomologists at the Xerces Society, the VT Center for Ecostudies, the Environmental Science department at the University of Vermont, and am an official Community Partner of the Middlebury Department of Environmental Science. These designs have been created to minimize deadly fungi, mites, and predators and are specifically in support of Mason, Leaf Cutter and Resin bees, all of which are native and non stinging super-pollinators. Each of these species has also been deeply affected by loss of habitat and their numbers continue to dwindle. I am proposing the creation of a body of work that brings both my satirical, narrative and deeply human sculpture together with my ideas and designs around sculpting for the natural world we are a part of. I see community engagement and the setting of a pollinator garden/water elements as part of the sculptural work itself, again blurring the lines of what outdoor sculpture has been and what it can become, works that don’t dominate the nature around them but serve to grow it, restoring what was lost, creating an area of natural beauty in the heart of Downtown Plattsburgh, New York.