Organic Mutations
Awakened during her undergraduate education, Lily’s fascination with the imperfect beauty of natural forms endures two decades later. This series of work is inspired by the overwhelming sense of awe and wonder Lily experienced upon discovering the wildly misshapen lemons that often speckle homegrown trees (a mutation caused by citrus bud mite, or Aceria sheldoni). It seeks to document the shapes of collected natural specimens through the processes of casting and photography in the hopes that viewers might experience the feeling of whimsical discovery. In some pieces, the shapes speak for themselves, transforming directly from fruit into sculpture. In others, Lily hybridizes castings in various materials (plaster, aluminum, latex, silicone) to create fanciful imagined species of her own design.

Ode to Aceria, 2009. Plaster

Ode to Aceria (variant, installed in existing lemon tree), 2010. Plaster, acrylic

Bird of paradise, 2007. Aluminum, latex

Blade, 2007. Aluminum, latex.