Deborah Butterfield offers beauty and order in the disintegration of our treasured or discarded everyday objects. For Three Sorrows, Butterfield collected remnants from the devastating 2011 earthquake in Japan—the earthquake that triggered a tsunami that led to a nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

For this project, Butterfield worked with the Gulf of Alaska Keepers to collect a variety of marine debris from remote islands in Alaska. The emotionally, spiritually, and tragically-infused materials take on a new existence as one of the artist’s iconic life-size horses. 

Three Sorrows is on loan from the Tia Collection in Santa Fe and is generously supported by Paula & Parker Jameson, with additional funding from Barbra & Jay Clack, Suzanne & Patrick McGee, and Moody Foundation.

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