Found Object Friday with Donna Zarbin-Byrne
Of strength and resilience, longing amid loss
The Found Object Friday Series:
We artists do love our collections, don’t we? Ever since I was a child, I’ve been drawn to small, curious things—trinkets unearthed at flea markets, foraging for smooth stones and bits of metal on long walks, objects that seem to hum—waiting to share their own stories. Long before I knew what I’d make of them, I gathered these artifacts from the past.
As it turns out, I’m not alone in this. So many artists I admire share this impulse to collect—oddities, treasures, and fragments that make their way into their work or simply live in the studio as quiet companions.
In this ongoing series, I’m thrilled to introduce you to guest artists and the objects they love. Some names you may recognize; others might be new discoveries. Through their responses to a few simple questions, each one offers a peek at their collections and art practices in this virtual show-and-tell: the objects that caught their eye, the stories behind them, and sometimes how they plan to use them in their art or home. Be sure to check out their bios and links to find out more about each artist.
Today’s Found Object Friday artist is Donna Zarbin-Byrne. I first heard of Donna Zarbin-Byrne when I showed a mutual acquaintance an image of my wax & wire jewelry pieces and she suggested I reach out to Donna, whose work she said I might resonate with. Sticking her contact info in my purse, I promptly forgot about it, until few years later when I joined Fused Chicago, an encaustic art organization, which Donna was also a member of. It was not until I went to see an exhibit the group had organized that my memory was jarred. As I stood in front of Donna's large-scale installation "Bowl of Prayers" in awe of the beauty of it.
Donna was first introduced to my readers in the original Found Object Friday series back in May of 2014 and I’m thrilled she agreed to give us an update today.
Welcome, Donna! I’m so glad you’re here!
Do you still have the original object you shared with us in 2014?
Yes, I am still working with dried banana stems, as I am fascinated with their anthropomorphic associations with vertebrae and figuration.
Donna has a fascinating process in sourcing and using her materials. Here she is to tell us a bit more about her work and techniques:
My most recent work has taken me out of the garden and into the landscape, with a focus on creating molds of objects found in the landscape and casting them in paper and bronze. Casting directly from natural forms observes and freezes a moment in time while simultaneously creating a new fictional account of that found object.
The recreated boulder from the work, Like Water from A Rock, was made by making paper castings from molds made of mountain surfaces. Also included are found rocks, cactus, cast-bronze shells, and other collected detritus. The sculpture was inspired by a "still life" I observed where a cactus actually grew out of a rock.
In other sculptures, I have altered and worked directly with plant forms such as the century plant in the piece titled Death Bloom. A tall, dramatic flower stalk blooms after ten to thirty years and emerges only once before the plant dies. While hiking in the desert of West Texas, I observed the stages of its life cycle. This plant also grows domestically, and I observed my neighbor's tree complete its life cycle. They were delighted that I volunteered to remove the "debris" from their yard, and I was delighted to wrangle this twelve-foot beauty into my studio.
My tactile-based process follows ecosystems and patterns found in nature. I build forms with materials that have become both substance and symbol. By applying patinas to dried plants, I re-articulate death into life, where I imagine against grief. Rusting steel releases earth tones of iron and orange onto handmade paper while I use fire and water to coax verdigris from bronze and copper. Direct castings of organic materials transform fragile plants into the strength of bronze.
Is there any symbolic or deeper meaning represented in the object?
These pieces were created for a show that was based on hikes in the West Maui mountains and the deserts of West Texas. While preparing for the show, extreme weather conditions and wildfires in Texas and Maui impacted me deeply. Maui was burning, and its most historic city, Lahaina, was destroyed. As a result, the work intertwined beauty with destruction and grief with hope. As natural cycles of life and death accelerated into human tragedy, creating this work became a physical expression of lament. The title, Like Water from a Rock, references the biblical account of the Israelites miraculously receiving water from a rock in the wilderness. Water serves as a poetic parenthesis around the two landscapes, imagining the ocean over time and space in geologic history, and quenching the thirst of the land and people.
The work has been a response to a time of environmental concerns and cultural crisis, and the landscape has become symbolic of strength and resilience —a place of longing amid loss. My work often serves as a vessel to hold concerns about the fragility of nature and life. I weave together beauty and hope in response to destruction and grief.
Thank you, Donna. I am in awe of your talent and the many layers of meaning you impart in your work.
Donna’s Bio
Donna Zarbin-Byrne's artworks range from site-responsive installations and public art to intimately scaled sculptures and works on paper. Her biomorphic abstractions investigate mysterious and cerebral responses to the forces of nature.
Zarbin-Byrne holds a BFA and MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a concentration in ceramics. She has studios in Greenville, South Carolina, and Haiku, Hawaii.
Zarbin-Byrne has received numerous commissions, including public sculpture for the City of Evanston, IL, the Gardens at San Juan, San Antonio, TX, and a garden memorial installation for St. Phillips Church, Glenview, IL. Her work is included in the City of Houston Civic Arts Collection, the John Peace Print Collection, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and private collections.
Donna is a recipient of the Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Grant, the Dallas Museum of Art which enabled her to travel to Japan where she explored traditional and contemporary uses of Kozo (mulberry) paper. She was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, in Interdisciplinary Art, grants through the Artists in Education program of the Illinois Arts Council, and the Franklin Furnace Fund to support an exhibition at Franklin Furnace, New York, New York.
Website: Donnazarbinbyrne.com
Instagram: Donnazarbinbyrneart
Be sure to hit the heart button to show Donna our appreciation and let us know how the work impacted you in the comments below.
Abstract and open for so many interpretations and reading about how she approaches her work is truly enlightening. A whole lovely connection to nature.
Century plants are interesting anyways but what she has done with this idea is amazing. Love this.❤️