Deborah Butterfield’s work is legendary in the contemporary art world. Each sculpture, some created out of found objects, while others are cast in bronze and made to look like drift wood. Giving off an almost foreboding feeling, from their skeletal form to the objects she uses to create them, each one tells a story, only if we stop and listen.

For an example, take a look at her latest creations: “Three Sorrows” are  sculptures depicting horses, an animal that have long represented strength and beauty. Deborah’s sculptures echos this feeling, but in a more thought-provoking way. Unlike the horses they are modeled after, these sculptures hold a sorrowful beauty, and a seemly fragile look, which is emphasized by the materials they are created by—broken, destroyed debris from the devastating Japanese earthquake and tsunami that happened in 2011. Using a small amount plastic that only amounts to a drop of the massive amount of waste in our oceans, it is a powerful and unsettling art installation. What have we done to our world, and can it be fixed?

The exhibit ended on January 6th at the LA Louver gallery in Los Angeles, CA.

A New Sculpture, A New Name, “Yellow Behr”

Just this past weekend, Rockford Art Museum in Illinois, USA announced the winner of their contest to name their recent Butterfield sculpture addition.  Weighing 800-pounds of steel, this sculpture have been greeting museum visitors in the entryway since being unveiled in October last year. Deborah Butterfield chose the name, ” Yellow Behr”, entered by Jerry Franklin of Caledonia out of 350 entries. The name with it’s nod towards Deborah Butterfelid, also combines the last name of the generous donors of the sculpture, Lon and Richard Behr. This lucky winner will review a one year membership to the Rockford Art Museum.