RUST & ROOTS Much of Barney Bellinger’s artwork brings the outdoors, in: His rustic furniture incorporates natural elements, like tree trunks and antlers, and puts a bold twist on the stick-and-twig variety of Adirondack art.
For his new installation at The Wild Center, though, he’s gone the opposite direction. Bellinger’s outdoor sculpture exhibit, “Welded Steel: Shape, Form and Light,” depicts fish, plants 4
and other natural forms—but is constructed entirely with man-made, industrial-grade materials. The 17 pieces, placed along our Forest Music exhibit and around Greenleaf Pond, are studies of form meant to evoke subjects including jumping fish, pickerel weeds and pitcher plants, a particular favorite. “We’re not mimicking nature—we’re only being inspired by it,” says Bellinger, whose goal is