July 2010:   Fern the Fiddlehead Dinosaur 

This was my first piece, public or otherwise. After we had seen a Stegosaurus skeleton in The Museum of Natural History in New York City,  my mother was dying to see this life-sized metal version in her front yard at the dental office.  It took us two days to complete – 97 degree weather – on my birthday,.. But what a gift! Mom taught me how to weld because she had collected all the metal for this beast, but it was FAR too big of a welding/cutting job for one person to tackle. I learned to weld out of necessity, but continue to weld out of inspiration!

In this picture, my mother is working on the body of the dinosaur.  I designed (and made) the neck and head, all on my own. The stegosaurus is currently at my parents’ dental office in St. Albans Vermont. People around town often ask if I am the one who made the life-sized, 25 foot dinosaur, or they simply complement me in wonder.