Thoughts & Prayers

Cast iron, steel, red paint, 2022/2024, 20’ in circumference x 40”

Twenty-three cast iron teddy bears lie prone, suspended above the earth speared through with steel rod and bolted in place with bright red hardware. Floating in an oval arrangement, the bears lay frozen in space dejectedly, abandoned by their previous owners. Their figures stand in for victims of gun violence, now the leading cause of death for children in the United States of America. Thoughts & prayers are expressed after mass shootings or horrible, violent gun deaths time after time instead of action. We have become numb to the violence and the risk inherent with public and private space.The teddy bears were chosen for their association with childhood, innocence, and the ability to provoke empathy. Teddy bears are often left at sites of violence as temporary memorial markers. Transformed into iron, they are heavy and fixed in place, permanent markers of the past victims who have become all too common in our daily landscape. On display at the top of Cary Hill Sculpture Park at Salem Art Works in Salem, NY.