St. Pete, FL + Jacksonville, FL

FloridaRAMA Project

The Original Floridian, Fairgrounds Edition, Sculpture

For FloridaRAMA's experience, Samantha created two sculptures of alligator feet. Created using life-casting techniques, these sculptures were fabricated from an original mold taken in 2018 of “Bog Guy” an adult male American Alligator at the Naples Florida Zoo who was approximately 10-foot and 500 pounds. To make this FloridaRAMA edition, the finish of the casts was custom made. The sculptures are inspired by the wild color palette of FloridaRAMA’s Everglades Arena. The alligator’s eccentrically beautiful characteristics become more evident with the magenta, green, and blue shifts that occur on the sculptures. When viewers move around the sculptures, they see the colors on the glossy surface change with their movements.

Bio—
Samantha is an interdisciplinary, conceptual artist working across traditional and new media processes in sculpture. Her installations, sculptures and prints have been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States as well as Canada, Germany, Andorra and France. Burns has received multiple residencies to support and develop her creative works such as Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), Elsewhere Museum (Greensboro, NC) and the Roundtable residency (Toronto, Canada). In addition to her studio practice, Samantha collaborates with organizations to use art as a medium to educate the public. In 2019, Samantha partnered with the Naples Zoo and Giant Armadillo Conservation Project. Brought to Brazil, she worked in the field along with the Giant Armadillo Conservation team to humanely cast giant armadillos. Together they cast this endangered species’ unique claws, backs and head armor, which are now being used as materials to educate and promote their conservation efforts.