Northfield, MN ARTIST STATEMENTI grew up as a budding naturalist/scientist in a very isolated, rural environment. I kept horses, rabbits, birds, and insects as both pets and subjects in rudimentary studies—most of what I know about being human I’ve learned through my early experiences with animals, and nature in general, and my current contact with clay. My sincere interest in the intersection of scientific knowledge, personal memory, and the visual poetry of the natural world excites me to no end. My most recent work places hybridized creatures in the role of both specimen and collector. Rabbits, squirrels, and mice perch in and on obsolete card catalogues, file cabinets, and well-aged tables and stools—frozen in a moment that straddles the present and past. These animals act as visual cues to an obscure system of cataloging to propose a sense order of the natural world through tactics of organization. Blue-footed rabbits are arranged in a pattern based on the brilliant hue of their human-like hands much like colorful songbird specimens in drawers in a natural history museum. A flock of crows interact with a Victorian curio cabinet, reconstructed as a laboratory of sorts, to imply time, motion and another deviant system of organization. I make connections between the human desire to collect beautiful things from nature and the refuse of our existence (litter) that is collected in nature. BIOGRAPHYKelly Connole received her BFA from the University of Montana in Missoula, and her MFA from the San Francisco State University. Connole explores the relationships between environments: natural, constructed, human, animal. In her process of combining sculptural forms with memories and emotions, she is able to evoke the complexity of the relationships around us, tangible and fleeting. Connole has participated in exhibitions across the country. Connole has also received several grants and awards by numerous organizations, including the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and previously by the McKnight Foundation as a Resident Artist. Connole has also written many articles, essays, and reviews for publication. She has taught at many art centers and universities, including her position as a professor of art at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.