SCULPTURE Years ago, I would find an object at the dump, and say to myself, “This looks like a horse’s eye, or a bear’s claw, or a knight’s armor.” Over the years I have gathered a treasure trove of junk, and now I can say, ”I’d like to make a camel” and go hunt for something that looks like his lumpy hump, his proud neck, his disdainful lips. At the dump, I pick up anything I am drawn to, regardless of whether I have anything in mind to make of it; sometimes people bring me things I would never have bent down to pick up, and these objects have in time become crucial elements of sculptures. I recently made a monumental flamingo for exhibit in Burlington, VT. I was stumped by the legs: how to evoke so odd a blending of skimpiness and strength, awkwardness and beauty? “I’ll go to the dump,” I said, “maybe I’ll get an idea.” There I saw the pieces of a pickup truck, thrown on the metal pile. The long rails of the frame that go under the bed, curving over the rear axle­held upright­ had just the look I sought: serving the demands of function so single-mindedly as to be objects of beauty, bearing the memory of much use, like bones in the desert. The key to the sculpture; literally the foundation. Deer Isle is a place where a way of life, long-forgotten elsewhere, is only now fading away. I am able to lay my hands on some the artifacts of this way of life before they pass out of the world forever; it is a great privilege and responsibility. And so the articles of home and farm and work, of the nineteenth century, still used and saved through the twentieth, may linger on in the twenty-first century as sculptures here in the woods here at Nervous Nellie’s or in the far flung homes they move to with new “caretakers”. View selected sculptures For more information, contact Peter Beerits at 1-800-777-6845 Home About Us Products Ordering Visit Us 598 Sunshine Road, Deer Isle,  Maine  04627 1-800-777-6845 or 207-348-6182 Email:jam@nervousnellies.com