Spider, Bumblebee, Lightning Bug, Cricket
Resident Wildings are a set of four oversized welded steel insects created by artist Melissa Pierce Murray for Camp Mondamin, an oudoor activity summer camp for boys, aged 8-17.
During her time as artist in residence, she was inspired by interactions with the Mondamin community to create the playfully interactive artworks, linking to the camp themes of care and responsibility of each other and the environment. Robust and freestanding, the insects can be easily hung, carried or positioned about camp. She hopes the insects will join in daily activites and become valued co-inhabitants of camp.
I was at Camp Mondamin partly to cover the Head of Arts and Crafts role, but also as Artist in Residence.
I wanted to make some sort of artwork for Camp, to create something interactive, engaging. I imagined lightweight sculptures that could be moved about camp, ideally sculptures that would retain their interest year after year, not works that would become part of the backdrop. I wanted something that would be appreciated by kids as well as adults, by art enthusiasts as well as the art ambivalent. I also wanted them to be responsive to the wilderness setting and camp ethos of care and responsibility of each other and the environment. Finally, I wanted to create something that would acknowledge the times we are living through, but to do so in an oblique and playful manner.
The mind is drawn to novelty and movement. Fixed and static forms can initially catch the eye and capture the attention, but with time they become familiar, and we stop noticing them. The challenge to a sculptor is to create an artwork that remains compelling to the mind and senses. There are various ways one can do this: one which I’ve been experimenting with for a number of years is to make it interactive or repositionable sculptures. Thus while the form remains the same, the contexts and interactions are continually changing.
The camp has four ‘lines’ of sleeping cabins, so that campers can be grouped by age. One of the counsellors suggested that I could make a sculpture for each line. I liked this idea, because it would give context in which to situate the works and encourage the campers to assume ownership of each sculpture.
Insects were a feature of camp. In the evenings we admired lightning bugs, during the days we held the big tarantula in the Nature Lab, and raised crickets to feed to the spiders, and the fragrant, blossoming trees hummed with bees. I showed the boys how to create colourful paper and string spiders with google eyes, which made their way into the cabins and onto the pillows of their counsellors to surprise them at bedtime. During art sessions I chatted with Bunyan about my ideas, and he encouraged me to run with the idea of welding insects. I was also grateful for this nudge, as it would also link with the drawing techniques I’d been teaching the campers.
I proposed my ideas to the camp director, including images of sculptures I’ve made in the past (see past works).
I'm hoping to make some large welded steel bugs for the camp- info and pictures below. These will be like quick 3-d sketches. I'd have time to work on them next week. I'd need some steel, access to a welder and equipment and welding clothing.
The camp maintenance team did have welding equiptment which I hoped to be able to use. Bunyan had left, and I was busily occupied teaching and organising activites when the steel finally arrived.
Hi Melissa- The metal is here! Could you come with me to the maintenance meeting at 7:30 tomorrow to discuss using the welder?
I arranged to head over in the evenings to weld, staying up later and later each evening, as I really didn't have much time left until Bunyan returned and I headed back the the UK. I finished the last insect in the early hours of the morning I was to leave and got to meet the local night sheriff who came through on his patrols.
image credits: Jon Mullen 2025
I brought the insects into the morning assembly, where the campers admire them before they were promptly put into service as songbook stands. Later that day, the boys carried them to different locations about the camp.
I wanted to find a good title for these artworks, and the word ‘wildings’ emerged from discussions with the camp photographer, Jon Mullen, who is also a bee-keeper,, among many other talents. I like ‘wildings’, which combines the sense of ‘wild things’ and ‘weldings’, and paired this with ‘resident’ as a reminder that humans are one of many creatures which inhabit the earth and while we may sometimes regard them as nuisances, insects are vital to our survival.
