10/02/2026
Reliquary for a Raccoon
Bone, Brass, Eastern Redbud, Stone and Glass
I attribute my love of nature entirely to the humble raccoon. If the High family’s relationship with nature were a book, it would begin 100 years ago with my Great-Grandfather, C.O. High. During the great depression, C.O worked in the Porter Oil Fields near St. Louis, Michigan and times were lean. To make extra money and provide for his family, C.O. hunted raccoons for their pelts, raised hunting dogs and trapped live raccoons to sell to the University of Michigan for animal testing.
This act of turning to the land to provide may not have seemed like much to him, but growing up listening to the grand stories about this era from my grandpa made it seem as if I were a direct descendant of Paul Bunyan himself. His love of the land became mythical and passed from my grandfather to my father and then eventually to me.
Whenever I see a raccoon now, I am reminded of my family’s love of the land and the generational amounts of gratitude that we owe to the raccoon for helping ensure that food was on the table when my family’s economic times were at their worst.
On my first visit to McDuffee Creek Nature Preserve, I was scouting potential vernal pool sites for an Land Conservancy of West Michigan event that I was helping with in 2022 and happened to stumble upon a coyote den with a raccoon skull placed right at the front door. I left the skull that day, but the image has been burned into my mind ever since and left me curious - did the coyote leave it there as decor?
Drawn on this raccoon skull and engraved into the block of wood, I have depicted the story of the raccoon whose skull I saw that day and created this sacred object as an act of reciprocity for everything the raccoon and McDuffee Creek have given me. Raccoons are generally viewed in a negative light due to their knack for getting into conflict with humans - but for me, raccoons are sacred. Think what you’d like about raccoons, but the raccoon is just doing what the raccoon was created to do, and I find that to be worthy of my admiration.
On display TONIGHT LaFontsee Galleries as a part of Preserved! Group show
More info in comments below ⬇️
