Laurel Roth

Laurel Roth is a former park ranger whose love for and obsession with nature is obvious. But her choices of subject matter have as much to do with man as with animal. Her work is divided into very specific projects, each different in medium and approach but often involving man's influence on the animal and/or the animal influence in man. Her two series of exquisite skulls depict animals raised for food, and dogs whose forms have been wildly manipulated by selective breeding. She crocheted a series cozy wool suits for pigeons to resemble birds driven to extinction largely or entirely by the acts of man. She constructed a dazzling pair of mating peacocks from the paraphernalia of human display: fake nails and nail polish, fake eyelashes, barrettes and jewelry. Her work is often highly conceptual and she has very specific messages in mind. There are a lot of artists these days who approach art in this way, often more concerned with the concept and the grant application than the art itself. And a lot of it collapses under the weight of it's own pretension. But Laurel Roth's work is sustained by her commitment to craft and her passion for her subject.
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"Food #4, Pig" 10" x 6" x 7.5" vera wood, gold leaf, swarovski crystal 2008

"Man's Best Friend - English Bull Dog" hand carved and polished acrylic 2007

"Biodiversity Reclamation Suits for Urban Pigeons: Carolina Parakeet" 8" x 9" x 13" crocheted yarn, hand carved pigeon mannequin 2009

"Birds of Paradise" 50" x 50" mixed media including fake fingernails, nail polish, barrettes, false eyelashes, jewelry, walnut, swarovski crystal 2009

"Birds of Paradise" detail