Mardi Gras Jester started with a mardi gras doll on a stick which was found be a friend in Biloxi. When she returned to her home in California, she mailed the doll to me. I paired it with a fan blade, a triangular box, and two pieces of plywood. 22" x 24" SOLD

Gulf Coast Heron is created from a furniture fragment, a charger plate, a painted piece of tin, and the head and neck to a metal egret. SOLD

Darling Saint was created from a salvaged tin sign, a piece of painted plywood and a carved wooden Virgin of Guadelupe which found its way to me from Mexico, via Rhode Island. SOLD

Copper Beach was made from a lid to a copper box with a raised shell, a copper platter, a furniture fragment and a charger plate. SOLD

Angel with a Basket was a piece that was waiting to be made for a long time. I found this beautifully crushed metal and wicker basket very soon after the storm, and could never find its companion elements. I have paired it with a furniture fragment and a carved Mexican angel I picked up in New Orleans. SOLD

Cross for Dianna was a commission from a sweet woman in Texas whose church has been involved with relief work on the coast. She wanted to present the piece as a gift to her church from herself and her husband, who had made several trips to my area. The piece is composed from a wood platter, a scrap of plywood painted with the church's disaster relief symbol, and a ceramic cross. SOLD

Cairo's Egret is about all the time my husband spent feeding a great white egret out on our pier, before Katrina. It had become a several times daily ritual which we all loved. The piece is made from a salvaged piece of board, a wooden tray, several coins that I dug out of the mud behind my slab, several pieces of tin, and the beautiful, rusted metal egret. 18" x 44" SOLD

Instruments was made from a violin neck, part of a guitar body, a small instrument from another country, a brass hotplate, two pieces of scrap wood and a wooden shutter. 18" x 30"

SOLD

Milagro Cross is made from a wooden cross I picked up in New Mexico, windshield glass, a copper tray lined with a mirror, and beer caps. 11" x 16' SOLD

Five Fish is put together from some steel fish, a painted metal sheet, and a metal platter. 16" x 21" SOLD

Angel on the Green is small and simple, composed from a small angel, an acrylic bowl and a wooden platter. 14" x 7" SOLD

Copper Cross is composed from a rusty metal cross, a bent copper picture frame, a cabinet door and a charger. 15" x 16" SOLD

Dakota Rose is made from a metal platter, a wood platter, a ceramic torso and head, a strip of metal and a beaded headdress. 12" x 16" SOLD

Dog House starts with a wooden tile upon which is layeres a house-shaped picture frame, a piece of rusty shelving, and a metal, anatomically correct dog. 17" x 17" SOLD

Face behind the Cross is composed from a plaster and mirrored cross, a plastic handle, a photograph, and two serving platters. 12" x 15" SOLD

Good Dog Bad Dog 3 is made from a metal rack featuring two dogs and a fire hydrant, a sanding disk, ceramic tiles, fragments of a drawer and a wooden tile. 21" x 17" SOLD

Japanese Doll features an antique Japanese doll given me by a friend who found it in a debris pile, a fan blade, the drawer to a wicker desk, two pieces of brass, two mirror tiles and two ceramic faces. 23" x 24" SOLD

Chicken in the Flowers is composed from a wire mesh chicken, a wooden something or other, and some plastic and metal flowers and leaves. 13" x 26" x 18" deep. SOLD

Destruction/Deconstruction is a mantle clock which is in pretty much the same configuration as when I found it-I removed most of the mud and the glued the elements in place. 17" x 21" SOLD

Blue Bell, Patron Saint of Redneck Bars is a fun piece that came together very easily. The figure of the woman is mounted upon a baking tray, and is surrounded by what is left of a wrecked painting, two pieces of furniture fragments, a "halo" of metal, two wings, and a plastic cherub. The support for the piece is a fragment of painted plywood. 26" x 40" SOLD

Heron and Fleur de Lis is about two of the reasons that I love the area in which I live- the abundant wildlife of the wetlands, and their proximity to my favorite city. A damaged wood carving of a blue heron, a couple of pieces of bamboo, and a ceiling tin with a raised fleur de lisare supported by a bamboo tray from my house. 14" x 19" SOLD

My friend Nan purchased this piece, and wrote a beautiful poem about it. She and her husband have relocated to Florida, but they have left a part of their lives behind like so many other people. We miss our friends who could not stay after Katrina ripped their lives apart-but we are so grateful for their continued presence in our lives. Here is Nan's poem:

FOR LORI

The blue heron stands proudly, bamboo legs spread.
Behind it, a raised fleur de lisle on a foliage-green background
is attached to a rattan tray.
From the chair where I sit beside a lamp in my house of exile
the piece looks somewhat surreal.
I see a moonlight-like shimmer beneath the heron on the left-hand side.
Stop. Wait. Look closely.
The fleur de lisle is a piece of ceiling tile.
The tile is bent, so the lamplight’s spill results in the illusion of the moonlight shimmer.
The paint has been worn away from the heron’s side
as if it had been beaten by a brutal, uncaring Mother Nature,
and the basket is broken, with missing spikes.
The piece reminds us that Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Mississippi
Coast,
leaving it -- and us -- battered and bruised.
The piece has been fashioned of found remnants of people’s lives --
mourned, regretted, lost forever.
But we cherish it,
because it also reminds us
that we have spent our lives celebrating the artists
who create order out of chaos --
beauty out of destruction.

We Felt Like Martyrs was made from a fan blade, a picture frame, shards of a plate glass window from Pass Christian, a ceramic face and a beaded halor. The title comes from an explanation I heard a friend give to a reporter. 22" x 24" SOLD

Sleeping on the Asphalt is about that first couple of weeks after Katrina, when so many people were sleeping outside in parking lots. My husband and I spent a period of time sleeping on the asphalt of a motel parking lot in Waveland, along with hundreds of other people. It was a strange experience I hope not to repeat. The "halo" doubles in meaning as a helicopter blade- the chopper base was across the street, and the landings and take-offs went on uninterrupted for weeks. The dirty arms and legs recall our inability to remain clean, with no power or water, and the door plate indicates that our shelter had been taken from us. The vertical structure is a piece of driftwood which symbolizes the storm surge, and the chair back points to the deconstructed condition of our lives. The rusted wire is about how we were trying desperately to hold ourselves together. 22" x 23" SOLD

Nautilus has as its center of interest a delicate nautilus shell that somehow survivied among the wreckage of my studio. It is sheltered within a glassed wooden box, and mounted on another piece of wood that was once the base to a sculpture. The counter clockwise rotation of the spiral has, of course, another level of meaning. 14" x 14" SOLD

Gnostic is a small piece that packs a wallop. It is composed from an angel form of wire, a plaster head and hands, a cowl made from a shell I picked up on North Beach in Port Townsend, Washington, windshield glass, rhinestones from a mardi grasa ball gown, three beer caps, a fragment of a painting and a piece of wood. Gnosticism has to do with the notion that transcendence can be achieved via intuitive means. 18" x 21" SOLD

Comes a Time features a molded glass face, windshield glass, reinforced plate glass, and two fine furniture fragments. 12" x 21" SOLD

Prairie Angel was created from an old wood and metal slicer, a battered garden implement, copper wire, arms from a broken china doll, wire "wings" , a polymer head, three strips of metal banding and acrylic paint. 7" x 17" SOLD

Face is created from two ceramic fragments, a burner cover and a chair back. 13" x 18" SOLD

Deer starts with a tin relief of the animal, and is combined with a cracked mirror in a tin frame, a rusty piece of metal and a piece of board. 10" x 15" SOLD

Tin Cross is a simple piece which freatures the cross surrounded by a fragment of wood and a decorative tin mounted on wood. 15" x 15" SOLD

Supplication has in its center a kneeling human figure of tin. It is paired with the lid to a small Chinese tin box, a plastic wing, a rusted piece of metal and a piece of driftwood. 8" x 9" SOLD

Sacred Heart features a Mexican version of the heart on tin, a fragment of plywood, a rusted piece of metal, and a primitive wooden cross. SOLD

Turtle Crossing starts with an enamaled metal turtle I picked up in Minnesota years ago, and recovered from the mud a few months ago. It is paired with some tracks from a model train set, two furniture fragments and a wood tile. 15" x 15" SOLD

Fancy Cat is another piece in the Familiars series. The kitty has lost an ear but has an elegant scarf. It is paired with half of a doilly, a metal serving platter and a damaged wood bowl. 18" diameter. SOLD

Momi's Heart starts with the centerpiece, which used to be the lid to a small jewelry box given me by my husband's beautiful daughter Momimaelani. It is paired with a Mexican tin box with a glass door and a carved piece of wood. 12" x 19" SOLD

Kitty Kitty starts with a delightful painted cat which was once part of a bookend. It is paired with an acrylic tray, a carved wooded heart, two sets of mesh wings, and a wooden box and tile. 17" x 17" SOLD

Asian Icon starts with a beautifully painted furniture fragment I recovered from a debris pile outside of an antiques store in Bay St. Louis. It is paired with another wood element, also from a debris pile in Bay St. Louis, and a piece I picked up in Pt. Townsend, Washington- a wonderful molded polymer "icon" with doors that close on the many Buddhas carved within. 17" x 22" SOLD

Elephants is created from a rusted metal circus elephant, paired with a ceramic fragment and a serving platter, mounted on a wood drawer and surrounded by another piece of rusty metal. 16" x 23" SOLD

Dragonfly with Flowers is composed of a painted metal dragonfly, two pieces of ceramic, two acylic flowers and a cracked mirror tile. The support for the piece is an old mirror set in its original wood surround. SOLD

Battered Angel begins with a door to a kitchen cupboard with the molding slightly rearranged. It is layered with a piece of an acrylic painting, a bit of metal from a windvane and another from a tin can, a glass face, painted wooden wings inset with mirror tiles, and a doll's body which has been extensively damaged. 15" x 24" SOLD

Beethoven is composed from a damaged plaster bust of the composer, fragments of two different ornate picture frames, and a backing board. 46" x 19" SOLD

Knockered is composed from an iron door knocker, two decorative pieces of brass, the back from a chair, a beautiful piece of copper, and a painted piece of plywood. 17" x 28" SOLD

Fish in a Net is a small piece that starts with a fan blade, upon which is layered a charger, a piece of caning from a destroyed chair, and a small ceramic fish which I purchased from a shop on the beach during my first year in Bay St. Louis. 21" x 13" SOLD

Snuff Bottle 3 features another of those exquisite snuff bottles from the Bay area, a ceramic dish, a piece of painted red paper, a charger, the cover to an old book, a fragment of a picture frame, and a piece of wood. 24" x 24" SOLD

Cross Cultural features a French wooden dough mixing bowl, some pieces of pottery that have a modern Southwestern feel, several spools of thread, and a battered piece of plywood. I named this piece because it made me think of how small the world has gotten. 15" x 32" SOLD