Nilay Carlson
My sculptural work is rooted in deep collaboration with nature. I spend countless hours wandering the woods, gathering materials - moss, leaves, sticks, sap, bones - each processed and held until the moment they reveal their place. I am deeply committed to working with natural materials and strive to minimize the use of chemicals, allowing the forest itself to breath life into my creations.
The creatures formed from these materials are guardians of the wilderness, born from Gaia herself. Each carries the quite power of their own story and the memory of the profound transformation, inviting viewers into a world of myth, memory and connection.
My work honour the unseen roots that bind us to the land and the cycles that shape us.
He Who Carries the Storm
Dimensions: 35" x 17" x 19" (89 cm x 43 cm x 48 cm)
Year: 2021-2025
Materials: Fur, deer antler, fish bone, raffia, sawdust, driftwood, leather, eagle feather, gold leaf, wire, wood, bonding agent, seed, wool, pigment.
About the Work:
He Who carries the Storm is a warrior born of the sky. His wooden beak is honed by the souls he has taken. Crowned with deer antlers-ancient symbol of strength and knowing-he watches with eyes that tell stories: one lost in battle and the other one is pierced with seed-encoded future-holding all that is yet to come.
Two eagle feathers rest on his shoulders, whispering of high flight and unseen realms. Nestled in the hollow of his throat, a delicate white cloud floats-silent, pure, and charged. It holds his vision, the calm eye within the storm.
This figure does not unleash the chaos, but temples it.
Portfolio
SCULPTURES
Truth of Chthonia
Dimensions: 16 1/2" x 25" x 19" (42 cm x 63,5 cm x 48 cm)
Year: 2021-2025
Materials: Sawdust, human hair (my own), ash, deer antler, butterfly, monkey tree leaves, mushroom, gold leaves, wire, cement, bonding agents, pigment.
About the Work:
A woman rises from earth where she belongs. Antler legs clutch the wisdom of a shadowed past, breaking through sacred mud. Gold leaves shimmer around a hollow womb of new life. Her lower body armoured with monkey tree leaves- sharp, ancient, and alive.
Her face is fungal relic, a keeper of the forest's forgotten stories. A butterfly rests on her shoulder-fragile witness to transformation.
She tears through soil, not to escape it, but become it- truth blooming in dirt and light.
It Who Slithers Between Worlds
Dimensions: 37" x 15" x 20" (94 cm x 38 cm x 51 cm)
Year: 2021-2025
Materials: Moose fur, deer bone, salmon bone, fur, unknown animal bone and claw, cocoon, bird wing, gold leaf, wire, bonding agent, wire, wool, branch, pigment, cement, polymer clay.