OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Omaha sculptor Lee Emma Running is having quite the year. Her works are completely unique, including her use of animal bones and hides as materials - often found along highways.
- "It sounds dark, but it's really not. Like, it feels really beautiful," she explained of her process.
- Running also draws inspiration from seeds. Her installation at University of Nebraska Omaha features microscopic depictions of various seed types.
- Running is also creating several 'floating' milkweed seeds for Omaha's new Central Library - to be installed in October.
Continue reading for the broadcast transcript.
"That, it just makes it whole... The skull was eaten by a racoon," Sculptor Lee Emma Running said as she stood near her finished piece.
Running was running when she came across the remains in Iowa.
Insects do the initial cleaning, she then launders and polishes the bones.
"It sounds dark, but it's really not. Like, it feels really beautiful," she acknowledged.
Running words to make the animals whole. In this case, she cast a glass skull and added white gold at the fissure.
"When I first started doing this research 10 years ago, we killed 3,500 deer a day in road accidents in the U.S.," she said.
Adding - she believes they deserve more respect in death.
"There's something to me about the average deer being between 110 and 160 pounds. And, that's me."
Displaying them upright is meant to make us relate: to the animals and to each other.
"It's opened a door to me to talk to hunters. It's opened a door to me to talk to people who are doing land management and land preservation to save spaces for deer to thrive," she remarked.
Running also hosts dinners in the verge, or the land by the road. Strangers at the table, eating from iron plates cast from tire tracks.
She's preparing now for an exhibit at the Joslyn Art Museum, in which Running created a two-sided jacket using deer hide.
"I cast the hide around my body. So, both sides of this object are me," she explained.
Not just animals, but Running is drawn to all things wild. Her installment at University of Nebraska Omaha features seeds.
"I did a wall of 16 panels of glass that all light up when you walk into the space. So, your presence - it's dark until you walk in, and then you turn it on," she said as she acted out the process.
Seeds also inspired her biggest project of the year at Omaha's new Central Library.
"That is - it's my dream! Showing in a library. Having my work in a library. In a public space," Running, the daughter of a librarian, beamed.
Inspired by a library archive photo, she'll cast and enamel several milkweed seeds then guild them in gold.
"And they'll float like lace through the air," she described.
The seeds will be hung in October.
"I really want art to be in public. I'm really hungry for art to be in public space. I think, particularly in this moment in the clock of the world, we need to live with works of art, we need them to be around us."