Native Gift
In centuries past it was not unusual to represent a painted or sculptural figure holding a small model of a building. These sculptures often represented Catholic Saints, clergy or other individuals who founded institutions that served the community. This sculpture can be interpreted as a guardian or Mother Earth figure. She holds a native tree, which are specific to different regions of the world as host plants for caterpillars. Recent research has found that small caterpillars are a vital protein rich, food source for young birds, who consume vast quantities for several weeks after hatching. Native birds are dependent upon these native trees for survival.
Rising organically from the land, this figure has clothing that is abundant and appears more as billowing clouds, rocks, and soil than as garments. Her bearing is that of an Amazon female warrior of Greek mythology, strong and protective.
Polymer plaster, gold leaf           
96”x 40”x 35”     2014
Earth as a Riverboat
This wooden boat was designed as a tactile experience for both normal and visually impaired individuals. The boat is a metaphor for Earth. It carries a recessed river that runs from stern to bow, plus a landscape with mountains and a village. Fingers can follow the carved river channel to experience the sensation of traveling calm water, rapids, narrow flows, and discoving mid-stream island.
Wood, steel, Monopoly houses
65”x 40”x 24"     2019
Balanced Garden
Flowers teetering on wooden stems - this is an installation about fragility in the environment. Ecosystems exist in a delicate balance that can easily be damaged with human interaction. This ceramic and wood installation urges viewers to recognize the precarious nature of this garden and to tread softly or to be mindful of how they move through the space. The flowers in this garden are painted ceramic forms that have been carefully placed on each post where they will remain as long as they stay balanced. On the floor scattered around these plants are pebbles-like forms that resemble human eyes sculpted in terracotta. They are like river stones that have tumbled through millennia. This makes them ancient and perhaps wise from all they have experienced. They are like stars looking at us from the beginning of time, ever mindful. Duncan calls them The Eyes of the Ancients. 
Perhaps the next time you walk through the woods or fly across the ocean you will think of the “balanced” environment in which we live.
Wood, terracotta, acrylic paint
80”x96”x48”     2014
Scribe of Time
A scribe is typically a title assigned to a person who writes documents by hand and maintains records. A tree in many ways performs a similar task, not through any action of its own, but through providing wood pulp for paper-making. Without trees there would be much less record keeping. There would also be no opportunity to utilize radiocarbon dating to measure historical time or to study climate variations through tree ring examination. This is how trees might be viewed as the scribes of time. The stories, photos, and ads from one issue of TIME Magazine were used to create a paper collage within the canopy. By replacing leaves with printed, historical material, the artist created a connection between photosynthesis and the creation of documented human history.
​Wood, Forton, paper collage
2014
Balloons in the Landscape
Often embraced as fun and joyful for events and special occasions, balloons can appear oddly foriegn within a natural environment. Like a plastic bottle floating in a pristine stream, balloons in the landscape are a reminder of human choices within our natural world.
Wood, steel, collage 
14” x 16” x 5”     2019
Ridge Walk
Scrambling to the crest of a mountain in the Canadian Rockies, the artist was surprised to find a narrow trail, less than two feet wide, winding along the very tip of this very steep ridge. In ‘Ridge Walk’, that narrow band of precarious soil and rock becomes objectified as an age worn plank of wood, repurposed to create a cantilevered beam covered in lichen and wind-swept grasses.
Wood, terracotta, mixed media
14” x 4” x 47”     2013
Virgin Forest
The Native American’s and early settlers spoke of gigantic trees in ancient forests with canopies so dense a squirrel could travel from Maryland to Maine with never having need to touch the ground. Today few virgin forests remain in the United States. Previous old forests fell to the march of industry and economics. This was a time of environmental disregard where entrepreneurs pillaged the forested landscape. Defenseless, this piece of timber has fallen to the figure that stands above, becoming yet another remnant of something once heroic.
Wood, terracotta
25”x 17”x 18”     2013
Three Oaks
This sculpture offers a brief history of our industrial evolution. Human society has evolved from acorn gatherers to the masters of polished ball bearing perfection. A steel plate forms the platform for three oak trees. Each tree canopy is a slightly concave metal plate. Here, where one might normally find acorns growing, you find instead, chrome-plated ball bearings. These metal balls of various sizes attach to the interlocking plates with magnets. Carefully, you can pick these evolutionary nuts off the canopy surface. Marvel at their perfection and recognize that they are the product of a particular kind of human/natural evolution. One might ask, "Which of the two holds the greater intrinsic value?"
Oak, steel
​18”x 9”x 9”     2019
Earth Nest
Earth is a distinct habitat in the universe that supports and nurtures life. Humanity is part of the living menagerie existing on this plant. Much like birds constructing a nest, we build structures and environments on this planet that allow us to mature as individuals and to prosper as a society. With this idea in mind, the artist has rendered Earth as a nest perched atop a Solar Tree. The tree underscores the importance of the sun as the foundation of all life on this planet. Between this sun and the nest lies galactic space; there the viewer finds stars represented as golden eyes and looking much like buds on the stalk of this tree-like form. The average life of stars is 50 billion years, which if they were people would make them very wise and mindful of what was happening in the universe. For this reason the artist likes to think of stars as the Eyes of the Ancients watching us from eternal positions in the midnight sky. The nest perched on this tree has been constructed from materials from daily life. A copper tree grows from its crown, while bird-like figures dance to the rhythms of life.
Wood, terracotta, metal, cement, plaster 
9’-7”x 30”x 27”     2014
Divisions and Toxins
This sculpture references the 1970s safety campaign, Stop-Look-Listen, which helped mitigate accidents at hazardous railroad crossings. Here the messaging similarly cautions us be aware of our surroundings and to react smartly to the tremors that unbalance our global garden.
Wood, copper, steel, terracotta, newspaper and magazine clippings, disposable plastic packaging
34” x 30” x 30”     2022
Navigating the Mother Ship
Simultaneously resembling a fish and a boat, this sculpture is an organic vessel made of earthly elements. It's a ship complete with sails rippling like a tree's canopy in stormy solar winds. You might imagine this as an Earthship with crew, charting a course through our expansive universe.
Concrete, copper, aluminum, steel
26”H x 40”W x 8”D.     2016
Copyright 2017-2024, Duncan MacDiarmid