Margaret Roleke American

Unfortunately, guns have now become a popular icon in America, a country where we have more guns than people. The pro-gun lobby has turned gun ownership into a political issue. I lived near Sandy Hook at the time of the mass shooting and knew relatives of the victims. That event catalyzed me to create work that would start a conversation on guns and hopefully gun control. I realized that shotgun shells are beautiful and by using them in sculptures I could draw people in and get a dialogue started. In Net Loss the structure that the shells are strung through appears like a playful net reducing these once dangerous objects into something fun. In Shell Shelter, while the viewer is invited to go and relax under a canopy, the realization that the shelter is made from spent shells is disturbing.