Leaf Egg, 1995

My first year at U of M Ann Arbor, I took a course called Elements of Design from the RC College.  My teacher was Mrs. Ann Savageau.  She truly inspired me when she assigned this first project which was to take a chicken egg and transform it so that the entire surface of the egg was covered with a new substance of our choice.  It was autumn and leaves were abundant, so I chose to cover mine with small bits of leaves.  It was more difficult than I thought because it took many layers to keep the white of the shell from peeking through.  

Transformed clock, 1995

The previous egg transformation led me on my own journey to transform other objects.  Below is a clock that has buttons glued on its surface, the dial is turned upside down, and the face is a spiral of eyes cut from magazines.  There are other protrusions on the top of the clock but they didn't fit on the scanner and this clock did not photograph as well as it scanned.

Transformed cuckoo clock, 1996

This cuckoo clock is covered entirely in natural objects like feathers, snail shells, wood, eggshells, beans, wasp nests, and cicada exoskeletons.  

Sculptural Planter, 1996

The main support structure of this planter was built with heavy screening.  It was then covered with plaster to provide additional support and to help secure larger objects.  The furry interior of the sculpture is hollow and invites the onlooker to explore inside.  Other interesting tactile experiences await on its exterior.  A living plant thrives in the planter on top.

Wooden Pyramid, 1997

At the top are a series of nails with string interlaced between them, representing tension.  Six feathers are attached to these strings, half hang inside and half outside.  The pyramid is made from two different types of wood that were first glued and clamped together.  The most difficult part was creating the 60-degree angles to make the three sides fit together.  There was not a tool in the wood shop to do this, so starting with a 45-degree angle, a belt-sander was used to remove small amounts until 60-degree angles were achieved.  A hole was cut in one face of the pyramid to show volume inside.  A piece of sheet metal was inserted into grooves near the bottom before the sides were glued together.  This provided a mirror-like effect to further express the feeling of volume.

Woman Head Sculpture, 2000

In this sculpture, a yellow, flocked styrofoam head was partly covered with a self-drying clay decorated with paint and "jewels".  The hair is made from a shimmering gold fabric that is tied and decorated with colorful feathers at the ends.  Dried flowers create a headband.

   

Vine Wall Sculpture, 1997

This sculpture took up an entire living room wall.  The main structure is composed of vines that were coiled around and tied together.  Other additions such as dried flowers, three bird's nests, seed pods and bark provide colorful and textural accents.

   

   

To create this photograph, An SLR film camera was manually rewound to produce multiple exposures on one frame.

 

This is a carving of Frank Zappa using a technique where only the outer surface of the pumpkin is removed, rather than cutting all the way through.  When light shines through, it is actually shining through the pumpkin flesh.  The two photos were taken at different exposure lengths.

   

This is another carving of Frank Zappa, using a similar technique as in 2002, except that I varied the depths of the carving, creating a more three-dimensional sculpture.  One can see how the appearance can drastically change with different exposure times and levels of ambient light.