Copper Tritscheller is a bronze sculptor living and working in Connecticut. Drawn to what she considers "misunderstood" animals, much of Tritscheller's work centers around burros and bats. As a pack animal, the burro, or donkey, has been the backbone in building most civilizations. By carrying loads greater than themselves, they have made moving, building, and creating possible, and yet society has undervalued them and reduced them to a stereotype. Similarly, bats are responsible for most of the fruit we enjoy today. They help control the bug population and in return, society is rapidly destroying their natural habitats and have branded them all as rabies carriers. Tritscheller firmly believes that society owes these animals thanks and respect.
She has been most inspired by the vitality and mystery of the works of Javier Marin, Mario Marini and Leonard Baskin, all of whom are “more about feeling than the physical reality of the subject.” In her own works, that feeling tends toward the primal emotion of the animals’ developmental histories, their plights, their endurance and survival. When crafting her sculptures, Copper imbues her bronze burros and endangered bats with human aspects, to provide context, relatability, and a voice; they tell a story, share their wisdom. The sculptor relishes working out the structural and aesthetic challenges of morphing the animal and human into one figure, tapping the inner beauty and integrity of each creation.
Copper's body of work continues to grow through commissions and public installations and can be found in galleries and private collections in the U.S., China, and Taiwan.