Installations

Symphony on A Half Shell - Outdoor Installation

In the 1880’s landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead sculpted the muddy river, building paths and connected riverways, transforming polluted areas into retreats for all ages and classes of people. Years later we are still “sculpting” the river.

Symphony on a Half Shell pays homage to two artistic giants, controversial architect Frank Gehry who considered his architecture expressive sculpture using curvy organic forms and unique materials and visual artists Red Grooms who’s pop up constructions were described as sculptural comic books of urban life.

A mixture of old and new kinetic architecture, Symphony on a Half Shell floats on a giant clam shell surrounded by swimming fish, symbols of rebirth and reinvention. Viewers of the sculpture will feel part of the urban symphony by seeing their reflections in strategically placed mirrors on some of the buildings.

Materials used for this 52” w by 32” h sculpture are foam sheets and cut aluminum with mirror. The sculpture is attached to a wood and steel box atop a steel stand, dimensions for the steel stand are 6’ x 7’. The sculpture should be placed on flat ground. Rebar spikes hold it in firmly.

Riverway Boston, Chapel Street across from the Longwood T-Stop. on view til September 7th 2026

Lumen - Outdoor Installation

Six years ago I accepted a challenge to complete a temporary outdoor site specific sculpture in Boston. Sculpting on a larger scale and experimenting with different materials to withstand outdoor weather brought its own rewards. I found the public venue satisfying, reaching many more people than an indoor gallery and inviting conversation between sculpture, viewer and nature. Purchased for the Burlington Sculpture Park.

“Creating Lumen challenged my engineering skills as I had to determine how to connect the different sections of the dragonfly together”

— Barbara Fletcher

Invasive Eaters - Outdoor & Indoor Installation

This sculptural piece was viewable in Art Ramble, an outdoor sculptural exhibition in Concord, Massachusetts until it was relocated for controversial reasoning to the SOWA in Boston, Massachusetts. Art Ramble was held throughout September 2020.

Look Deep Into Nature - Outdoor Installation

This 35" long x 35" wide x 18" deep installation piece, “Look Deep Into Nature”, as it passes through seasonal changes from Spring to Winter.

“Look Deep Into Nature” was at The Eustis Estate in Milton, MA throughout June of 2019. This outdoor installation was juried into a national exhibition at The Kathryn Schultz Gallery in Cambridge, MA and it will be viewable until June 25th, 2021.

Double Helix - Outdoor Installation

This installation was viewable in Art Ramble, an outdoor sculptural exhibition in Concord, Massachusetts. Art Ramble was held throughout September 2020..

Pinball Universe - Outdoor Installation

This 6’ x 9’ installation, “Pinball Universe” was viewable in Newton at The Newton Upper Falls Greenway in September 2019. This outdoor installation was exhibited at The Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA until September 19th, 2021.

Goldberg Variations

I believe art should draw the viewer into another world. At its best it may help the audience view the world in a new way. Art should stimulate and make us see connections between things that at first glance may not seemed connected.

Artist, inventor, engineer Rube Goldberg who was the inspiration for my two- sided sculpture “Goldberg Variations” illustrated contraptions that used seemingly unconnected mechanical actions in the form of a chain reaction to ultimately achieve a very simple task. He was a keen observer of human nature and its foibles. Today we live in a very unpredictable and precarious world so I have chosen to replicate the feel of Goldberg’s work using satire, motion and symbols of games of chance. Goldberg’s work intrigues me as a metaphor for many things in contemporary society today. Was he asking us what the line is between fascination with machines and becoming a machine?

The opposite side of the Goldberg Variations sculpture is a dooms day clock. The clock was created by Manhattan Project scientists in 1947. The clock’s minute hand moves closer to or farther from midnight to indicate the level of threat from nuclear weapons, climate change or other technologies. The clock is presently at 90 seconds before midnight which is the closest the hand had been since its creation in 1947. Juried into an outdoor exhibition entitled Hidden Worlds and Wonders from July 12-October 26th at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA

Sculpture size is 8’ H on stand, by 52” W by 20” D

Completed 2024

Goldberg Variations will be on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA July 12 - October 26, 2025

https://www.nrm.org/2025/04/hidden-worlds-and-wonders-outdoor-sculpture-exhibition/