Artist uses natural materials in his miniature sculptures

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MAIDEN ROCK — Swan Song Contemporary Arts presents the first special exhibition of its 2010 season: Botanical Fiction 2, featuring new plant-based constructions by sculptor Jim Proctor.

The exhibition is on view during Swan Song’s regular hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

For more than a decade, Proctor has worked as a sculptor, making art from natural materials. Today, he is recognized as an advocate for biodiversity and a public artist addressing the challenge of invasive species to the urban and rural landscape. He is best known for his early advocacy of buckthorn removal and for several large temporary public art installations featuring 5-20 ft. dandelion-like structures made of buckthorn.

Proctor was recently named a Volunteer of the Year by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for his leadership in invasive species removal at Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden.

For his exhibition at Swan Song, Proctor presents a series of small sculptures made entirely from plant material: acorns, winged seeds, plant fibers, thorns and stems.

He installs each tiny sculpture in a specially designed glass covered case, recalling the “cabinet of curiosities” made popular by collectors, biologists and artists of earlier centuries.

Proctor says his intention is not to isolate or hold hostage exotic specimens, but to draw the viewer’s attention back to the beauty and synergy of the organic world.

“I feel a real affinity for the materials that I work with. Most of what I know about sculpture comes through my study of plant form,” he said. “It is increasingly urgent that humans can identify with the other species on our planet.”

Swan Song Contemporary Arts is an eco-arts gallery, presenting special exhibitions of contemporary art It also features an ongoing array of works by artists of regional and national reputation, including Judy Onofrio, Jennifer Davis, Wayne Potratz, Amy Rice, Jeremy Lund, Dale Vanden Houten, John Pearson, Amy Sabrina and Kelly Connole.

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