Artist Statement 

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The human population has grown to over 7.5 billion and we now outnumber all other mammals combined.

In America, we have laws to protect minority groups. 

Don’t animals deserve that protection too?

We are not aware of how many species become extinct every day.  We do not know how many species are endangered.

 

         This installation focuses on those endangered and extinct animal species.

Approximately 61,200 species in the vertebra family are listed

as threatened on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List in 2008.  We need to understand that our human influence is powerful.  Our actions can irreversibly affect the lives of these animals.

 

         Composed of 25 small scale bronze animal sculptures balanced on steel rods and placed on individual wooden blocks; the installation is a metaphor for our connectedness to each other.  Any movement by the viewer will set the sculptures in motion. Drawings on tracing paper suspended from the walls represent the extinct animals.

I want you to imagine holding one of these animal sculptures in your hand.  What happens if these species disappear and no longer share our planet?   All we will have left of them is but a trace.......

 

         The loss is unspeakable and yet, every day, species are becoming extinct, silently, and unnoticed. Some of the major causes are habitat destruction, poaching, and the pet trade.

 

Do we want to know? 

Do we care?

Why are we not outraged or at least saddened?

The future of these animals depends on us. When you hold my sculptures, you are symbolically holding the destiny of these fellow-creatures in your hands.