Site Specific, Community Collaborative Public Sculpture "Bird Song, Bird Dance"

This piece was part of an artist in residence award, with funding from PA Department of Community and Economic Development. The site, at Tannersville Learning Center in Tannersville PA, now houses a sculpture park,  the result of years of dedicated effort on the part of the Pocono Mountain School District Art Faculty, especially Susan Crowley and Linda Danges, and the visionary leadership of Elementary School Principal Catherine Sweeney, and contributions from the Philip and Muriel Berman Public Art Endowment.

The "feature" piece in the Bird Song, Bird Dance installation, pictured front is the belltower, complete with a raptor at its top, designed by a lively and inspired Kindergarten class, via experimentation with found metal forms, such as bushings, metal points, etc. The powder coated cardinals are the school mascot, and populate the mobile which circulates around the tower. The bell, which can be struck by students, is a freshwater bouey. Pictured distant right is the killdeer bench, visible left is the Great Heron, part of three field and water birds assembled from fresh water boueys. The Heron's head bobs on a spring coil neck, and its body swings from legs anchored in the earth. The distant red legs are the base of the pegasus, concieved by fourth graders.

        Pictured top is the pegasus, with powder coated machine table legs. and an old tractor wheel body. Metal artist Jim Doherty did the welding and fabrication. The I beam bench was assembled on site, with the students choosing the orientation of the base, and even reciting the vocabulary of "paralell" and "intersecting" legs. The killdeer housed in the cylinder was designed by me. Linda had noted that the school is an important migratory killdeer route: The females nest on the flat top of the school's roof in spring.