FOR NEW SELECTION CLICK UPON THE DESIRED IMAGE BELOW
Mysteries Of The Marsh
In 2007 Sharon created artwork for a permant exhibit at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum called "Mysteries of the Marsh" . She created a bronze sculpture with dragonflies resting on fiddlehead ferns that interacts with a stained glass window that depicts a marsh habitat. Also created were bronzes of Blanding's Turtles, Chimney Crayfish, Giant American Water Beetle and a Hines Emerald Dragonfly that function as sculpture and door handles to open lift panels with information about these species. The Hines Emerald is the United States' only endangered species of Dragonfly.
Blanding's turtles are threatened becuase of the destruction of their habitat. They are part of a Head Start program for turtles out at Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn. Mother turtles are tracked in the Spring when their eggs are layed and hatched at the wildlife center. The hatchlings are reared for a year or more before being released into the wild being bigger and stronger than if they had been on their own foragiing for their food. This will help restore declining populations of the species, especially as 'Blandings' are unusually long lived for smaller turtles. Records of their lifespan show them living up to eighty years old or more! Sharon's bronze turtles depict the size difrence between a Head Start turtle versus a turtle born in wild of the same age.
