As a conceptual artist and citizen scientist, my work is informed by the study of animal behavior and habitat. The studio is a kaleidoscopic lab where discarded plastics and papers transform into art. For several decades I have been collecting objects disgorged from the waste stream and have come to believe that although the landscape of ecocide is a sad place, it is also a place of rebirth.

Growing up in the Great Lakes rustbelt of the ’50s and ’60s, I was aware at an early age how the language we use to describe the environment establishes our place in the natural world. Our perceptions are as much framed by stories of waste as they are of wonder. Upon moving to NYC in the late ’70s, like many artists, I was fortunate to be a participant in the petri dish of economic decline and urban ecology. For the past four decades a focus on Discard Studies has mobilized my sculpture practice, representing species in the crosshairs of survival.

As a conceptual artist and citizen scientist, my work is informed by the study of animal behavior and habitat. The studio is a kaleidoscopic lab where discarded plastics and papers transform into art. For several decades I have been collecting objects disgorged from the waste stream and have come to believe that although the landscape of ecocide is a sad place, it is also a place of rebirth.

Growing up in the Great Lakes rustbelt of the ’50s and ’60s, I was aware at an early age how the language we use to describe the environment establishes our place in the natural world. Our perceptions are as much framed by stories of waste as they are of wonder. Upon moving to NYC in the late ’70s, like many artists, I was fortunate to be a participant in the petri dish of economic decline and urban ecology. For the past four decades a focus on Discard Studies has mobilized my sculpture practice, representing species in the crosshairs of survival.