Dennis J. Wilson Bio

	Photo Patricia Barry-Levy

Dennis Wilson received his BFA in painting and sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design. After graduation, Dennis worked for well-known artists, Dale Chihuly and Buster Simpson. It was then that Dennis developed his "Roadkill" series; sculptures and topiaries constructed from animal remains, which grew out of his interest in anatomy. In 1991, Dennis accepted a job with the American Museum of Natural History as a museum preparator and reconstruction artist for their fossil halls. After the halls opened, Dennis started Pangaea Designs, a firm that provides commissioned model making, paleontological reconstructions, and natural history art to museums, aquariums, and zoos. Dennis merges form and function with the most recent scientific data available in every sculpture, ensuring fidelity to both art and science that creates, says paleo-ornithologist Dr. Luis Chiappe, "a crucial bridge between researchers and the museum audience." Now known as one of the foremost paleo-artists Dennis specializes in, but is not limited to, dinosaur reconstruction, extant birds, fish and invertebrates. Dennis also volunteers at museums and schools where he gives lectures and demonstrations about his work and the idea of melding art and science in a single project.