About a year ago, I discovered that I had a friend in the St. Petersburg art community that was also a fellow art educator.  I friended her on Instagram and Facebook, and discovered she was a REALLY amazing oil painter that went to college at Ringling, one of the best art schools in this area.  I oogled over her talent, and she was liking some of my artwork online as well.  This past spring, she approached me about having a duo art exhibit here in St. Pete.  Since she was a painter, she was looking for someone that produced artwork in a different medium, and she left it up to me as to which I wanted to work in.  It is hard for me to decide, since I like to work in mixed media, but I know as soon as the ideas flowed, I could nail down a medium.  But I was thinking found object sculpture.  Next, she told me what theme she was thinking about, and I was perplexed at how I would contribute.  She gave some examples of what she was using for inspiration, and luckily that helped me generate some ideas.

The theme had to do with post apocalyptic Florida, and all that remains is wildlife.  My mind went straight to robots and sci-fi movies, but then I decided to focus on the animal aspect.  I began researching the history of Florida, its inhabitants, the animals that were around then.  Then, I thought about nature taking over man made objects (buildings, cars, homes) and found some interesting things on the web.  But then, I had an epiphany!  What is the animals societies developed so much, that they had a religion?  After that thought, it was all over.  I cant say more than that, but the pictures that follow will give you a taste of the 2 pieces I have finished so far.

Some things I pulled to construct some of my found object sculptures...I love that I get to use the things that I have been collecting in an exciting way!