Communities

Title: Communities

Artist: Don Rambadt

Date: 2012

Medium: Cortone

Location: North Highway 89 Pathway Underpass at the National Museum of Wildlife Art

Funding By: Teton County Pathways

Don Rambadt channels his lifelong curiosity of nature, namely birds, into his sculptures. For the retaining walls at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Wisconsin-based artist decided to explore the ecosystems neighboring the public art site on the National Elk Refuge. He created “Communities,” a stylized depiction of the six major plant communities found on the refuge, using six panels of Corten steel. He simplified the plant forms into silhouettes then cut into the steel.

Through the piece, Rambadt set out to give the viewer a sampling of the surrounding environment in a single, elegant landscape, while encouraging them to see that there are indeed unique, separate ecosystem communities that make up the grand vistas that are a part of the Greater Yellowstone experience. His “communities” – Native Grassland, Sage Scrubland, Riparian Aspen Woodland, Wetland, Cultivated Fields and Coniferous Forest – are often overlooked, and therefore at greater risk.