SECOND NATURE: Salvaged Metal Sculpture & Haiku

Details can change. Please confirm the date, time, location, and ticketing directly with the organizer before attending.

About this event

SECOND NATURE brings together sculptor Michael Zant and poet Thomas L. Vaultonburg in a collaborative exhibition pairing salvaged-metal animal sculptures with original haiku. Zant transforms discarded and repurposed metal into animals, while Vaultonburg’s poems respond to the creatures and the Midwestern landscape through an approach he calls Prairie Zen. The exhibition explores transformation, attention, animals, landscape, and the unexpected possibilities of overlooked things. Scrap becomes sculpture; sculpture encounters poetry. SECOND NATURE also benefits Wild Roots, an organization devoted to promoting the prairie. Vaultonburg is the author of Vanished Roads (Wolf Twin Books, 2026), a collection of haiku and short poetry exploring many of the same intersections between the natural world, ordinary objects, memory, humor, and transformation. Learn more about Vanished Roads: https://www.wolftwin.com/product-page/vanished-roads SECOND NATURE takes place during Fall ArtScene, October 2–3, 2026, at Rockford Art Deli in Rockford, Illinois.

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