understanding nature

i was first introduced to stacy levy's work while studying landscape architecture at penn state university (she is the wife of my landscape ecology professor neil p. korostoff). stacy was a huge source of inspiration to me in her integration of art, science, and landscape ecology and her apt for creating visual metaphors for otherwise invisible processes. so i was very excited to see her featured on the cover of this month's sculpture magazine with a nice spread titled "stacy levy, understanding nature".

as a scientist and artist, stacy brings a fresh approach to land art through her visually seductive forms while incorporating environmental education and awareness. working with natural elements of water, wind, tides, pollution, decay and microorganisms, stacy designs her projects so to allow the sites and elements themselves to tell their stories of place and progression of natural processes.

"I am interested in showing the invisible aspects microorganisms and their complicated relationships of eating and being eaten, the spiraling hydrological patterns of a stream, the mosaic of growth in a vacant lot, the prevailing winds and their effects on vegetation, the flow of water through a living system. Often people think that nature ends where the city begins. But natural processes are always occurring in the city. I like to explore the idea of nature in the city and make it visible to people. I look for sites which give me the opportunity to bring the patterns and processes of the natural world into the built environment."

the following are examples of her work:

tide flowers


the hudson river rises twice a day with the eternal motion of the tides, connecting us in the urban fabric to the ocean, the moon, and natures' own daily schedule. emphasizing nature's constant hand in the urban environment, tide flowers is an installation of colorful flowers which "bloom" at high tide and close at low tide on the hudson river.


acid mine drainage & art, projects for vintondale


acid mine drainage (amd) pollutes hundreds of miles of streams in the coal mining country of pennsylvania. this issue is close to my heart, as my fifth-year capstone project for psu was the transformation of an 80 acre site intensely polluted by amd into a healthy community park.

collaborating with a landscape architect, a geologist, and a historian on acid mine drainage in vintondale, pennsylvania, levy explained the effect of coalmines on the environment, while creating a park and a passive water treatment facility to restore nature to its pre-industrial state. "the design of the water treatment wetlands brings the massive scale of the mining operation back to the site, with raised plinths of soil demarcating the footprints of the original mine buildings. the final rinse of the water is through the series of wetlands allowing the water to slowly seep back into the blacklick creek."


river eyelash


installed for the three rivers arts festival in my hometown, pittsburgh pa, stacy used 3,000 painted buoys to create strands of an eyelash for the city from the tip of point state park. "the eyelash floats where the concrete of the city meets the fluid edge of the water, engaging the great open surface of the three rivers." the floating strands constantly change in response to wind direction, speed of the currents and types of waves.