Beneath

2024 ShelterRipple River Gallery, Aitkin, MN I grew up in the woods of Northern Michigan. As a child the forest was my playground where I particularly loved searching for salamanders under logs. As children often are, I was highly curious but, sometimes, at the expense of empathy. One morning my mom found me in the garage “racing” a pair of red striped salamanders. She watched in horror while I giggled as they scurried away from me in utter panic only to be scooped up and forced to flee again. My mom demanded I stop, then asked me one rhetorical question which changed so much about the way I view the world. “How would you like it if some giant came and plucked the roof off our house and took you away!” she asked. I stared at her wide-eyed as she insisted I return the salamanders to the same log under which I’d found them and never take them from their homes again! On that infamous day I learned a vital lesson about compassion, ethics and ecology all in one. From that moment on, I still