"I’m fascinated by the 'weak links', the smallest bellwethers of environmental damage: the frogs, insects, small birds and field mice that are often the first to succumb to environmental stresses. Although not as showy as the polar bear or tiger, nevertheless these easily overlooked and undervalued tiny disasters, extinctions, and deaths nibble away at our own secure future by foreshadowing future impacts on human health and welfare. They also raise larger moral and theological questions. How significant is the fall of a sparrow? I use a human skeleton or human limbs to show that our own fate as animals also reliant upon our environment is closely intertwined with these creatures, and that in losing a part of the natural world, we are losing a part of our own identity as well." -Kate MacDowell
