Grottoes
I created these Grottoes and their videos to provide an aesthetic backdrop to conversations about water rights, conservation and access and the many ways water is essential to our lives and livelihoods, as reminders of water as common ground, common necessity.
Cascades Grotto
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38 x 22 x 15 inches
2012 steel, fabric, wire, video screen, paper mache', recycled glass chips, paint, moss This video contains clips from the Clark's Fork Canyon and Firehole Falls/Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, Basin Creek and Crazy Creek Falls in Montana. |
Falling Water Grotto
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61 x 22 x 15 inches
2015 welded steel, rope, ribbon, fabric, brown paper, plastic tape, raffia, video screen This video contains clips from Basin Falls, Stillwater Canyon, Vernal Falls, Holland Falls. 
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Flowing Streams
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55 x 27 x 15 inches
2010 steel, fabric, wire, electrical cord, video screen, ribbon In Private Collection In Private Collection/Billings, Montana Awarded Best of Show, WCA San Diego Transformation Exhibition, March 1-April 30, 2011 Statement for the Transformation Exhibition: In my sculptural Chrysalis series, based on Jungian Marian Woodman's concept of building symbolic spaces to protect oneself during vulnerable times of personal growth, I have explored cocoon, cradle, canoe & nest structures. This wall piece, "Flowing Streams Chrysalis" transitions from my Chrysalis series into my new Grottoes series. Each Grottoes piece is/will be a hollowed welded steel/mixed media wall sculpture including a video collage of my observations and meditations on nature, in this case flowing streams. t water rights & conservations efforts. The chrysalis form is, of course, transformational; this piece is my personal way of transforming my work into more cave like wall forms; and water is certainly symbolic of rebirth. This video contains clips of the Clark's Fork (WY), Boiling River Hot Lake Fork Creek/Beartooth Mountains (MT), Red Lodge Creek/Beartooth Mountains (MT), Rock Creek/Beartooth Mountains (MT), West Fork/Beartooth Mountains (MT). |
Geothermal Grotto
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2015
28 x 39 x 8 inches welded steel, wood, photograph, video screen,wire, fabric, painted canvas, trimmings, plastic string, raffia In University Collection/Billings, MT This video contains clips from the geothermal areas of Yellowstone National Park. |
Iridescence Grotto
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2012
37 x 28 x 18 inches Steel, copper wire, aluminum foil, aluminum sheeting shards, fabric, video screen, paint This piece was accepted into the Women of All Colors show at the Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center, February-March 2013. The video in the interior of this grotto includes footage from Bahia de La Luna in Mexico, the Rhein River in Germany, the Big Horn Canyon, Silver Run Creek, Stillwater Creek and the Yellowstone River in Montana. |
Refractions Grotto
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33 x 40 x 9 inches
2015 welded steel, wood, glass, fabric, wire, video screen In University Collection/Billings, MT |
Rushing Grotto
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34 x 38 x 22 inches
2011 steel, video screen, copper wire, rope, vinyl This video contains footage from the Clark's Fork in Wyoming, the Boulder River at Camp Miminagish, the Boulder River at Natural Bridge, Rock Creek, the Yellowstone River near south of the bridge at Tower-Roosevelt. |
Shades of Turquoise
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42 x 29 x 16 inches
2011 steel, rope, video screen, wire, fabric, suede, silicone The video in the interior of this grotto contains footage from Stillwater Canyon, Yellowstone Park, Yellowstone River, Clark's Fork. |
Winter Grotto
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32 x 30 x 8 inches
2015 welded steel, video screen, bark, photographs, suede, fabric, wire, trimmings This video contains clips from the Yellowstone River and West Fork of Rock Creek. |
Yellowstone River Grotto
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35 x 24 x 15 inches
2012 recycled steel rod, video screen, steel wire, recycled steel mesh, recycled bicycle tires, recycled nylon rope, recycled guitar strings, balloons, nylon hose, trash bags, transparent tape, electrical tape, recycled shower curtain, recycled nylon yarn, recycled VHS tape, wax paper, plastic wrap, organza ribbon, nylon undergarments This sculpture was juried into Water: A Universal Right at Robert Morris State Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, February 13 - March 2014. The Montana Constitution guarantees a pollution-free, healthful environment, yet three oil refineries sit on the banks of the Yellowstone River, a symbol of this treasured environment. On July 1, 2011, an Exxon Mobil pipeline broke under the river, releasing 750-1000 barrels of oil, one-half of which would have been made into petroleum products such as those in this piece. This video includes footage of the Yellowstone River near its source in Yellowstone Park, as it goes through Gardiner, Montana at the northeast entrance to the park, in Yankee Jim Canyon, at Pray, Montana, south of Livingston, Montana and in Billings, Montana. |
ABOUT GROTTOES SERIES:
"Flowing, rushing, rippling, cascading, effervescent.... The seductive attributes of water - the beauty in its many moods – invite me to stop, to spend time in wonder, to contemplate its path from the mountains, to pause and be grateful for its relative abundance in our region of the world.
These thirteen concave, welded steel and mixed media wall sculptures were inspired by the intensely azure water and reflected light in the Blue Grotto of Capri, the grottoes associated with the Greek oracles, grottoes as garden follies, grottoes as religious shrines, grottoes formed by rock and brush from which water springs forth."
The Grottoes were highlighted in Flow, a socially-engaged project, centered at MSUBillings' Northcutt Steele Gallery and directed by Sherri, January 28 - March 18, 2016, where the exhibition, including additional juried works, sets the framework and jumping off point for community conversations around water issues, rights and usage.
Grotto themes include: Shades of Turquoise, Cascades, Winter, Falling Water, Flowing Streams, Geothermal, Iridescence, Reflections, Refractions, Ripples, Rushing, Yellowstone River.
These thirteen concave, welded steel and mixed media wall sculptures were inspired by the intensely azure water and reflected light in the Blue Grotto of Capri, the grottoes associated with the Greek oracles, grottoes as garden follies, grottoes as religious shrines, grottoes formed by rock and brush from which water springs forth."
The Grottoes were highlighted in Flow, a socially-engaged project, centered at MSUBillings' Northcutt Steele Gallery and directed by Sherri, January 28 - March 18, 2016, where the exhibition, including additional juried works, sets the framework and jumping off point for community conversations around water issues, rights and usage.
Grotto themes include: Shades of Turquoise, Cascades, Winter, Falling Water, Flowing Streams, Geothermal, Iridescence, Reflections, Refractions, Ripples, Rushing, Yellowstone River.