Life Desaturated (Squirrel)

Life Desaturated, my second life-sized squirrel, was created for World On A String: Exploring Contemporary Interpretations of Bead Work, an exhibition at Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge, MA (July 11 – September 2, 2017). He took roughly five months to complete and was worked in glass beads using a traditional Native American technique called peyote stitch, over a dense foam core.

The work’s title, in part, reflects my ongoing determination to try to think that life is funny…which sometimes helps me to keep things in perspective. In this case, I was trying to illustrate a sense of hope for the future, as this little fellow moves from a world lacking in color towards a polychrome existence. Nope, I’m not depressed, just a realist whom also attempts to remain optimistic!