Local artist Larry Robjent gives new life to old materials in this series of six animal sculptures created for The Wild Center. A heron, river otter, turtle, porcupine, owl, and woodpecker — each built from scrap metal and reclaimed materials — celebrate the wildlife that calls the Adirondacks home. Look closely, and you’ll find the histories hidden in each piece: tools, machine parts, and cast-off metal that once served another purpose, now transformed into feathers, fur, and shell..
An industrial arts and stagecraft teacher at North Country School & Camp Treetops in Lake Placid, Robjent has been sculpting with reclaimed metal for more than a decade — with works ranging from the beloved Bug Crawl sculptures in downtown Saranac Lake to private collections around the world. He brings a builder’s ingenuity and a teacher’s eye for wonder to everything he makes, often involving his students in the process. Many of the materials used in this series were sourced from the North Country School & Camp Treetops community. His sculptures invite visitors to see both materials and wildlife differently: to find beauty in the overlooked, value in the used-up, and a little bit of wildness in what we leave behind.
Photo by Cody Updike/ROOST
Photo by Cody Updike/ROOST
Photo by Cody Updike/ROOST
Photo by Cody Updike/ROOST
Larry donates a portion of his sculpture sales to North Country School & Camp Treetops, where he has worked as a faculty member since 2000. A longtime partner of The Wild Center, this junior boarding school and summer camp sits on a 333-acre campus in nearby Lake Placid — and has spent more than a century instilling in students a sense of wonder, curiosity, and respect for the natural world through experiential and progressive education.