Three by Three: Guest Artists in Focus

QUESTION 2.    The “Vulture Vials” feel intimate and ritualistic, almost devotional. What do these small-scale reliquaries allow you to express that larger wall pieces or mandalas cannot?

• ANSWER 2.     I create my “Vulture Vials” and “Teeny Tiny Wild Worlds” with the intention of inspiring reverence for the wee wonders of our world. I have noticed when I am sharing these little reliqueries in person, they can be easily overlooked because they are so small. The larger mandalas have more recognizable and easily observed pieces. The little ones call upon those with an intention to notice and gentle curiosity- just like the beings inside. I recall that even as a child i admired miniatures, tiny delicate things, and fine details. My nearsightedness is a gift after all (ha!) I create small scenes for myself and others who are filled with curiosity in search of tiny miracles to share space with. I always encourage viewers to handle and investigate them. I hope they find a safe sacred space to marvel at Mother Nature’s little miracles. The combination of tiny beings in teeny containers inspires intimate reverie for the systems we are apart of and rely on. There is strength in the “little”.

Sunny Lessig
Nature Artist

MEDIUM:    mixed-media

BIO:    Sunny is a mixed-media nature artist guided by a lifelong dialogue with the land. Raised on a hobby farm along the Delaware River in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, their early bonds with animals—especially chickens—and the rhythms of rural life shaped an intuitive way of seeing and listening. Their time living nomadically across the United States, from tents to beaches, deepened their understanding of impermanence, place, and the quiet spiritual intelligence woven through the natural world.

Rooted in Native Mexican, Native Scottish and Dutch ancestry, Sunny approaches art as a ritual act—one of remembrance, reciprocity, and care. These lived experiences inform a deep commitment to exploring, developing, and sharing spirituality through nature, ancestry, and embodied knowledge. Now based in Hopatcong, New Jersey, they create intimate assemblages from locally gathered and upcycled materials. Their work invites viewers into small, sacred worlds, offering reflections on interconnection, sustainability, and our shared responsibility to Mother Earth.

INSTAGRAM:    @Vultures_Sun

QUESTION 3.    You often transform what society discards into objects of reverence. What do you hope shifts in a viewer when they recognize beauty—or even sanctity—in something they were taught to fear or ignore?

•  ANSWER 3.     I am hoping to inspire the dazzling fact of magic being in all things, around us, all the time. Mother Earth is constantly talking to us, within us, through us giving us answers and insight to the inherent suffering of being human. We can learn that suffering is an invitation to evolve. Death and change are the laws of this world and touch every living thing. We have more in common with this experience than it may appear. In fact, we are not separate from these processes and Mother Nature at all. When we take time from the many shiny distractions manufactured in our fast-paced technological world of convenience, we can notice that magic and miracles are the nature of things around us, not the exception.

  I want to emphasize that this also goes for fellow humans. My time being homeless showed me that we as a society ignore the marginalized. I remember the terribly dehumanizing feeling of being looked through. At least gawking validated my existence, even if my presence was undesired. But being looked past, ignored was devastating.

  This brings me to the core of my message- you exist because you are worthy. If you were not worthy, you would not exist. I hope that if even one person witnesses my art and can feel connected to something bigger by connecting to something smaller, they can resonate with this message and carry it on.

QUESTION 1.    Working with materials like roadkill, bones, and dead insects requires both physical and emotional boundaries. How do you care for yourself—practically or spiritually—while engaging so closely with death and decomposition?

• ANSWER 1.    Working with the dead asks for tenderness, patience, and clear intentions—both physical and spiritual. I gather my materials through roadkill, forest scavenging, and offerings from hunters, butchers, and loved ones who know I treasure what others may overlook. For instance, the honeybees woven through these featured pieces, were gifted by my uncle, a fourth-generation beekeeper who established and runs A&M Apiary in Bloomsbury, New Jersey. Nothing enters my work without being embraced with respect and honor.

  Processing is a ritual I share with the land and its many unseen hands. I place each body upon a specifically chosen stone, offering thanks to the parted spirit and to the great community of rotters—vultures, crows, hawks, insects, fungi, and bacteria—who know exactly what to do. Within moments, wings descend. The bones are impressively and quickly cleaned. The birds even leave behind feather i use in my work. And their excrement feeds the soil. What remains is lightly buried under stones, and the next line of rotters take their turn until only bone and memory are left. The final and longest stage is the sun’s blessing, slowly whitening what time has revealed.

  This process sustains me. It feels intimate, devotional, and profoundly alive. I am not confronting death so much as listening to it—learning how nature metabolizes loss into continuity. My art grows from this communion, a quiet collaboration with the Mother herself as well as the communities within Her, moving through my hands as a gift, a prayer, and a remembering.

"Fall Reign” 2025. Mixed media. 9x1x13.
Canvas mandala collage with center piece of racoon skull.

All copyright and reproduction rights are reserved by Sunny Lessig.
Artwork may not be reproduced in any form without the artist's express written permission.

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“Spirit Box” 2025. Mixed media. 2.5x1x4.
Tin with quote on printed flower, quartz cluster, insects.

“Prismo” 2023. Acrylic, Pen, Mixed Media. 11x1x13.
Figure with halo holding cube, surrounded by shells, stones and bees.