I was looking for a way to draw in space when I taught 3-D design. Steel wire was available at hardware and farm stores, and allowed me and my students to explore shape, volume, and form. I started collecting my students’ unwanted wire exercises because I couldn’t stand to let perfectly good sculpture material go to the landfill. When I crushed a bunch of abandoned wire spheres and 3-D sketches together, I recognized a memory:
My parents rented an RV and drove their little kids to western South Dakota for a family vacation. I was three or four years old, and my only memory of the trip was climbing up to a bench at the RV table so that I could see what my sisters were excited about. Just outside the glass louvres was the most majestic animal! A herd of bison had wandered into our campground, and except for the window screen, I could have touched one of them.