Eco-Light Sculptures
Medium: Paper, Wood
Member Since: 2021
ABOUT
Nicole Green: Sculpting with Nature Her Eco-Light Sculptures Combine Bamboo, Twigs, Paper, and Driftwood to Illuminate the Simple Joys and Infinite Dimensions of Nature
ARTIST STATEMENT
Nicole Green is an artist who uses elements of nature to create light sculptures that resemble a variety of flora and fauna. Her Eco-Light Sculptures are more abstract than purely representational, but they incorporate some of the essential shapes and structures found in nature, such as hives, webs, and shells. Each piece is a handcrafted original, made from multiple layers of artisanal paper, with a frame of bamboo cane, reed, or willow branch twigs, and mounted on driftwood (which Nicole finds along the coast of British Columbia, near her home in Vancouver). The unique concoction is then wired (including a LED bulb), producing a natural light, a warm, buttery glow, like the color of the moon. Eco-Light Sculptures employ tiny pieces of nature to mimic and celebrate natural forms that are wondrous in scope—the mathematical precision of a shell’s structure, the perfect symmetry of a leaf, the eternal cycle of renewal and decay…a piece of wood disconnected from its source—weathered and gouged, perhaps encrusted with seaweed—is technically “dead,” but its reincarnation as a part of a quasi-organic artifact is another kind of life…An Eco-Light Sculpture is a microcosm, imbued with the story of where and how its constituent parts were found. Nicole has always had a close relationship with nature, associating it with wonder, joy, and play (essential for any artist).She even practiced a rudimentary form of bio-art as a child, when she would trek to a nearby park to collect moss, sticks, and rocks and create dioramas depicting natural landscapes. She always felt safe and secure when she was immersed in nature, and her passion never flagged. She studied horticultural design in college and has been a landscape designer for more than 15 years—which means she is a professional horticulturist; versed in botany, dendrology (the study of trees), and the like, with in-depth knowledge about the very elements from which she now fashions her light sculptures. Nicole’s Eco-Light Sculptures are a scintillating mesh of the natural and built worlds—both functional and decorative, with an aura of wondrous landscapes. For her, ultimately, they are a means through which she can express the mystery and beauty of nature.