Meander, 2016  40 x 144 x 48 in., resin, wire,

Meadow grasses with bulbous forms created by insects making homes for their larvae were collected during daily walks through a meadow at an artist residency in the midwest. They were relocated to Brooklyn where they were cast in resin and  transformed into a site specific installation in the sculpture garden of Schema Space gallery. 

Elegba, 2004, 48 x 70 x 130 in. picket fences, wire, straw.

A site specific sculpture that references Haitian Vodun tradition. On the large patch of land in Woodstock at the crossroads where Glasco Tpke meets Upper Byrdcliff Road, I installed picket fences into the ground to form the Veve of the Haitian loa of the Crossroads, Legba (AKA Elegba) .

Veve are symbolic designs representing the attributes of the loa (spirit) traced on the ground with maise, (most often) flour, ash coffee grounds or brick dust. These “celebrated blazons of the vodun goddesses and gods” are traced by priestesses or priests on the earth around the central column of the vodun dancing courts. They praise, summon and incarnate all at once the Vodun deities of Haiti. Luminous force then radiates, so it is believed, from the bottom of this pillar in the form of the blazing herald-white signatures of the goddesses and gods. The  veve are then erased by the dancing feet of devotees, circling around the pillar, even as, in spirit possession, the figures of these deities are redrawn in their flesh.

Legba_is the god who “removes the barrier” and who, in ceremonies, is saluted first of all loa.  He is the interpreter to the gods and without him they could not communicate with each other nor could human beings communicate with them No loa dares show itself without Legba’s permission. He holds the “key to the spiritual world”. Master of the mystic barrier which divides men from spirits, Legba is also the guardian of the gates and of the fences which surround houses and by extension he is the protector of the home. He is also the god of roads and paths. As “Master of Crossroads” he is the god of every parting of the way- a favorite haunt of evil spirits and propitious to magic devices; and it is at crosssroads that he receives the homage of sorcerers and presides over their incarnations and spells. 

Rangoli in Spain. Each approx 60 x 60 in. Powdered pigment, desert.

Two Rangoli created at building sites near Fundation Valparaiso, Almeria, Spain. Rangoli are designs made near the entrance to a house to welcome guests. Traditionally they are painted or created by the lady of the house in India out of colored sand or rice powder each morning, for good luck and to welcome visitors.  The first was a in pit dug for the foundation of a new house. The second, a proposed building site at the same desert location.

Sporangia Falls, 2004, two of four parts, approx. 18 x 30 x 12 in.,  29 x 33 x 18 in. Variable dimensions. Plaster, cheesecloth latex, urethane in stone wall with waterfalls.

Site specific piece made along a waterfall and stream in Woodstock, NY. The five parts were attached along the stream, to be discovered as one walked along the river's edge. It was not at once clear whether these were forms growing there, and more than one visitor was fooled. 

Sporangia Beach, 2008, 108 components of plaster, cheesecloth, wire

Site specific piece made for Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park on the East River In Brooklyn, NY. 

Sporangia Alley, 2001, 120 x 44 x 168 in, latex, filament, white birches.

Site specific piece in a grove of white birches for an outdoor sculture show, Woodstock, NY.