Turning Nature’s Remains into Art: A conversation with Sierra’s Bones
Based on your profile on Instagram you create nature-inspired art focused on bones and bugs, whilst sourcing all material ethically! What initially drew you to this artform?
Ever since I was a kid I’ve always spent a lot of my time outdoors, I’ve always been really drawn to nature. I used to collect a lot of bugs when I was a kid, I wouldn’t preserve them or anything I would keep them as my pets and then let them go. With bones, in 2020 I went on a family camping trip and when I was exploring the forest behind where we were staying I stumbled upon scattered deer bones. I thought that was the most awesome thing ever! So, I collected them all up and basically had them on display in my room for a few years before doing anything with them. I dabbled in resin creations for example I had a chameleon, and she laid an infertile clutch of eggs, so I put them in resin to preserve them. Two years ago, I decided to start doing more things, and trying to get more creative. So, I make plaques and work with pressed flowers, incorporating that into my pieces too. I’m drawn specifically to this weird medium, because I’m not great at stereotypical illustration or painting so it was nice finding something that I can make my own little thing.
Can you walk us through your creative process from sourcing materials and challenges along the way, to completing a piece?
Right now, I have a lot of bones in my closet but when I start running low I’ll go out bone hunting specifically. To source them I source from forests or train tracks, I live outside of Philadelphia, I live in the suburbs, so it is fairly forested where I am. There’s good wildlife and we have so many deer and unfortunately there is a lot of roadkill. When deer’s get hit by cars or are injured they’ll run into parks or forests of the side of the road. I’ll go in those parks, and I’ll find vertebrae, ribcages and more. Sometimes they are already nature cleaned as people call it which means that they are in perfect condition to start working with but if not I’ll have to soak them which can take a few months.
After I’ll go through my collection and choose which piece I want to move forward with. I like to do hanging pieces, bone windchimes and more. For bugs I usually do just find them dead on the sidewalk, specifically right now I have a lot of bees because I worked on a farm with a beehive that did not make it over the winter. I make a lot of bees in resin which is probably my most popular creation.
How do you ensure that your work remains ethical and respectful to nature?
I always make sure the bones I am using have either been collected by me personally or friends. I stay away from ordering bones online because I truly don’t know how people got them. I’ve also gone to some oddities expos that have a lot of bones and taxidermy on display, and I’ll want something so bad, but you just don’t know how those things are sourced. Especially with bugs too, it can be hard, but it feels weird buying them online. It also makes it more personal because part of this process is about going out and being the one to collect it.
What message are you aiming to convey through your creations and how do you hope that viewers will connect with/interpret your work?
I want people to see more of the beauty in death because a lot of people find it sad of course but it is inevitable and part of life. So being able to use remains of creatures that have died and show that there is still beauty in the remains is something I want to do. I also think that people can assume these animals are gross when they die, so I want to make it something everlasting and beautiful. You just have to change your perspective of it and look at what’s underneath, literally the bones! People are scared of bugs too, I mean understandably, but I have met a lot of people that have told me they are scared of bugs but would definitely get the bee in resin.
Do you have a piece that you are most proud of?
I really like the pieces I make with skulls, where I use pressed flowers on them. Those do take me the longest amount of time just because finding the composition of how I want to place the flowers can be difficult. Something relatively new I made was a terrarium in a jar with miniature figures that my friend commissioned, and I really was happy with how it came out. That was so nice because it was a new project that kept me motivated. I like my bee necklaces too!
How do you see your art evolving in the coming years, would you work with new materials or explore different themes?
I would like for my art to eventually reach more people, it isn’t one of my main goals necessarily, but it is nice knowing that my work has spread and makes people happy. With my Esty my art so far is in twenty-five different states which is so awesome to think about. So, I would like to keep connecting with people and giving people this new perspective on things.
Material wise and things I’d like to do. I want to definitely do more terrariums with bugs and even bones. I have mostly done bone plaques and stuff in resin, so I’d like to try new things. More things with jewellery too, but it does take a lot of time. I like collecting trash hahaha so at the minute I have a lot of broken glass that I’ve found in creeks and stuff. I want to make some sort of mosaic/collage somehow but I’m still figuring out how to go about that.
I also do ‘my shitty doodles’, I’ve just ordered my own prints for the first time that I would love to get out there.
