Leaf & Resin Installations

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Luminous Garden (Aerial) 2009
Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston, MA

Urethane resin, LEDs, steel and copper wire, monofilament, electronics
Dimensions variable

This immersive environment, the sixth in the series of luminous gardens, is the most ephemeral piece so far. It is made of tiny yellow LEDs set in cast resin acorn caps, which hover over tangles of delicate wires in a darkened room. Inspired by a trip to the Galapagos and the experience of swimming underwater, the piece creates a floating world through which viewers journey.

Luminous Garden (Origins) 2008
Reeves Contemporary, New York, NY

Urethane resin, LEDs, steel and copper wire, electronics
Dimensions variable

This walk-through environment of luminous hanging vines is made of LEDs embedded in resin forms cast from seedpods. The refined flowers at the top contrast with the sprawling tangle of roots at the bottom, which loosely tether the plants to the floor. The piece creates an experience of airiness or perhaps of being underwater.

Luminous Garden #3 (Vineyard) 2006
Wave Hill, Bronx, NYC

Urethane resin, LEDs, steel wire, electronics
6 - 8’ x 13’ x 6”

Clusters of glowing purple flowers made of cast resin seedpods, LEDs, and electrical wires are bound together to create large plant forms. The luminous flowering vines climb up the wall of a formal staircase at Wave Hill House.

Fragilities 2006
Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston, MA

Toothpicks, shadows
Dimensions variable

Using delicate materials interacting with shadow and light, this installation creates a magical world based on natural patterns of growth. Inspired by an Arizona desert plant, the various sculptures in this installation are made entirely of toothpicks.

Ice Forest 2005
Reeves Contemporary, New York, NY

Urethane resin, monofilament
10' x 10' x 14'

More than one hundred translucent cast resin rose stems are suspended from the ceiling to create an icy forest through which the viewer moves. Shadows projected on a nearby wall extend the piece into the surrounding space, creating an immersive environment.

Luminous Garden #2 (Night Meadow) 2004
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

Urethane resin, LEDs, steel and brass wire, electronics, fans
10' x 15'9" x 21'9"

Viewers walk through this enchanted garden on a meandering pathway, past yellow, orange and purple “flowers” that sparkle like fireflies. Evoking a meadow at dusk, this “natural” place is made entirely of industrial materials. Each flower consists of a cast resin seedpod with an LED light inside, set atop a piano wire “stalk” that sways in the breeze as viewers move by.

Luminous Garden at Wave Hill 2004
Wave Hill, Bronx, NYC

Urethane resin, LEDs, steel wire, electronics, fans
9’ 6” x 48” x 20”

The glowing blue flowers from “Luminous Garden” traveled to Wave Hill and invaded a giant cupboard. The flowers sprouted on five shelves, and as they poked out of the opening toward the viewer, their delicate stems swayed in the wind. The installation was part of an exhibition entitled “Enchantment.”

Luminous Garden 2003
Christopher Brodigan Gallery, Groton, MA

Urethane resin, LEDs, steel wire, electronics, fans
10' x 15' x 21'

This walk-through "garden" is a glowing environment created by colored LEDs embedded in translucent forms cast from seedpods. Attached to thin stalks, the pods float and sway in air currents created by viewers as they pass by. Masses of tangled electrical wires suggest plant root systems. The little lights could be thought of as a life force/energy system of the plants. Combining nature and technology, order and disorder, the installation creates new hybrid forms.

Ice Forest 2001 - 2003
Artist's studio, Somerville, MA

Urethane resin, monofilament
Dimensions variable

This installation is made of rose stems cast in translucent plastic resin. Fragile, beautiful, yet dangerous, the icicle-like stems are suspended from the ceiling to create a walk-through environment.

Terrain: Sculpture Today 2003
Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME

Urethane resin, sycamore leaves, acorn caps, monofilament
Dimensions variable

These sculptures are made of natural and industrial materials that are repeated and reordered according to manmade systems. "Sycamore Circle," a ring of resin bricks with sycamore leaves partially embedded, plays with the contrast of permanence (the inner resin core) and fragility (the delicate leaves on the outside.) "Tangle" is a snakey rope made of tens of thousands of acorn caps, strung together on monofilament. Its tangled coils are reminiscent of internal organs or a living creature.

Apokalypsis 2003
Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama, Boston, MA

Birch and beech trees, leaves, rope
Dimensions variable

Thirty five birch and beech trees, some suspended upside down, create an eerie environment for "Apokalypsis," a performance by Prometheus Dance Company. The forest creates an atmosphere of dislocation and uprootedness for this searing piece about people forced to leave their homeland.

Recasting Nature 2000
Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery, West Newton, MA

Leaves, seed pods, rose petals, urethane resin
Dimensions variable

This installation, made of natural materials and translucent resin, explores relationships between nature and architecture. Some of the sculptures suggest thickets, tangles or tree trunks. Others are architectural forms such as a corridor of icicle-like rose stems or a wall of resin "bricks", smooth on one side with ragged layers of exposed leaves on the other side.

Windows Art Project 1999
Goodwill Industries, Somerville, MA

Leaves, seed pods, found objects
9'6" x 5' x 10'

These sculptures are made of leaves and seedpods of different colors and textures collected from red japanese maple, sweetgum and beech trees and water chestnut plants. The solid spheres are created by gluing one pod to the next. The installation was inspired by images of cell division, the big bang and galaxies.

Still/Life 1998
Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery, West Newton, MA

Leaves, seed pods, urethane resin, silicone rubber
Dimensions variable

Leaves, acorns, branches, logs, and seed pods are preserved by making castings of their shapes or embedding them in resin, like insects in amber. Extracted from the natural cycles of growth and decay, the objects beome frozen moments in time, leading the viewer to meditations on transience and permanence.

Taxonomy 1998
Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH

Leaves, seed pods, plexiglas, plastic laminate
14' x 29' x 36'

Collections of leaves and seedpods are preserved by drying or laminating them in plastic. These natural materials are arranged in regular patterns, such as grids. Each leaf and pod is slightly different, creating delicate and variegated compositions.

Ring of Glories 1998
Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, NY

Saplings, string, peat moss, landscape cloth, morning glories
7'6" x 58' diameter

Thwarted by cold windy weather and hungry woodchucks, this large scale installation of conical structures was intended to become overgrown with brightly colored pink and blue morning glories. After de-installation, the piece left a beautiful circular pattern in the meadow of tall grasses.

Leaf Dreams (Second version) 1997
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, VT

Leaves, beeswax, monofilament, plywood
15' x 18' x 23'6"

Tall columns of sycamore leaves strung together on monofilament "grow" up toward a skylight. Fan-shaped golden ginkgo leaves are stacked on wooden platforms and waxed onto marble plinths and stairs in the space, which was formerly the waiting room of a train station.

Root Piece 1997
Deering Oaks Park, Portland, ME

Branches, wire, iridescent paint
Dimensions variable

Dominating the park is a grove of large oak trees, tracing a network of lacy roots on the ground. This sculpture made of brightly painted branches bound with wire draws one's attention to what is largely hidden beneath the surface.

Leaf Dreams 1997
Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery, West Newton, MA

Leaves, seed pods, beeswax, netting, vellum
22' x 29' x 53'6"

Inspired by the falling leaves of the cucumber tree, this indoor environment contrasts with the skeletal tree outside, which viewers walk past as they enter the exhibit. Using leaves that were dried and dipped in beeswax, the sculpture captures a transitory phenomenon and re-forms it in a playful way. It is a meditation on the beauty of nature amidst a process of loss, death and decay.

Leaf Boats 1996
Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA

Painted leaves, resin, corks, monofilament, fishing weights
22' x 70' (dimensions of pond)

Fallen oak leaves from the site are painted in bright iridescent colors to catch light. The leaves float freely with other elements in the pond, adding a new rhythm; their configuration shifts according to wind and weather. Color, light, movement and transformation are the elements of this ephemeral piece.

Nestings 1995
Roger Williams Park, Providence, RI

Branches, paint, wire
2'6" - 5' diameter

Viewers discover these sculptures as they walk along a footpath in the park. The "nests" are built on site using branches that are painted and bound together with wire. Placed high up in the trees, some sculptures are easily spotted on a branch or against a trunk, while others are hidden until wind blows the leaves aside.

MacDowell Studio 1995
Peterborough, NH

Painted leaves, twigs, branches, found objects, wire, pins
Dimensions variable

A summer at this artists' colony marked the transition from making sculptures inspired by architecture to working with found materials and forms from nature. Leaves and branches collected on daily walks from the studio to the dining hall formed the basis for this new work.

Leaf Passage 1994
Fitchburg Art Museum, MA

Aluminum screen, hardware, leaves
7'8" - 12' x 7'8" x 81'

The installation was inspired by a "connector" between two buildings. The elongated space creates a heightened perspective when looking down its length from doorway to doorway. Metal mesh walls interact with natural light from a wall of windows; leaves bring the view of nature from the outside in, softening the edges of the architecture.

Garden 1992
Milton Academy, MA

Plastic flakes, recycled plastics, baggies, peat moss, grass
10'4" x 28'10" x 34'4"

This garden of natural and manmade materials was built in collaboration with students during a residency. As you walk along the paths there are plastic flakes placed on the ground like mulch. Garden "beds" are planted with film spools, soda cans and detergent bottles. Alongside the recycled materials, there are 200 baggies, each a terrarium containing peat moss and grass, wheat or radish seeds.