Bunny with Smog Mask, 2003
embroidery on canvas

This work was created to address issues of poor air quality in the Detroit and Windsor area. People are not the only ones suffering. Nature unfortunately does not have the option of protecting itself from pollution and other environmental hazards.
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Using mixed media sculpture, taxidermy, video, and various forms of photography my work explores aspects of nature including its history, death and preservation. I began investigating and developing ideas of death, loss and narrative through a project titled Sleeping Doll Series in 1997. I created narratives for dead birds, animals and insects by photographing them next to an old doll. The imagery emanated childhood perceptions of death and loss. By objectifying/extracting the dead animal from the state I'd found it, I preserved nature as a way of dealing with death and loss. At a certain point, I felt it not enough to simply photograph the dead animals I found. I collect and preserve them using some traditional methods such as taxidermy, formalin solutions, and air-drying. By essentially halting the state of decomposition, and in some cases restoring the animals? physical state to the time of its death, I'd hope to also preserve its story.