Back in 1991 our son adopted a baby green iguana. As he grew to nearly 5 feet, he shed his skin, small bits at a time. I soon observed and became in awe at how varied and beautiful were these sloughings. Accepting them as a GIFT and adding them to my growing collection of "flotsam + jetsam" that's been amassing to be included in my mixed media work.

Five years later I began constructing my "Lizard Sheds". Conjuring up one per year and harboring them in little habitats, reminiscent of the dioramas and specimen displays I was so smitten by as a youth in my haunts in the Museum of Natural History in NYC.

In 2006, after receiving a fellowship grant, I purchased my first digital camera. Since then, the "9th Lizard Shed" has been accompanying me on my travels and daily routines that it might be photographed in varied environments. I started photographing it after realizing that in these images "the shed" appears to be life sized and not the 4" that it is in actuality.

Not entirely diverging from my natural instinct to "transform the nature of things" I have now included photography as another obsession.

Sadly, Phyzy went off to "Iguana Heaven" at the ripe old iguana age of 18 but I still retain a goodly collection of his gift to me and am in the process of building the 10th Lizard Shed.