Turtle Shells
Park Main Entrance, Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Reddng, CA

In January 2000 I was selected by the Turtle Bay Exploration Park (formerly Turtle Bay Museums and Arboretum on the River) to create the entry sculpture for their ambitious new interpretive museum and arboretum visitor center. Turtle Bay Museums is a consolidation of four area museums, which focus on art, cultural and natural histories of the upper Sacramento River bioregion. For this project I have adopted a design of the Western Pond Slider, California's only native turtle species. In coordination with the architectural design team, the landscape design team and museum curators I created five unique, 4 foot and 5 foot diameter cast concrete turtle shells that serve as seating and play structures on the entry plaza of the south entrance visitor center at the 300-acre museum and arboretum site.