This week Museum of Glass (MOG) welcomes mixed media artist Joseph Rossano for a five-day visiting artist residency, from Jan. 9-13. During his visit, Rossano and a team of assistant artists will create about 300 mirrored glass birds that will dive into a proposed underwater installation. The public is invited to stop by the museum’s Hot Shop Amphitheater and see the art being made during the museum’s regular open hours.

This spring, the finished work, titled “Mirrored Murrelets,” will be installed in the museum’s mid-level plaza reflecting pool. The artist is working with museums around the country to take “Mirrored Murrelets” to different cities as a traveling exhibit next year.

MOG visitors may already be familiar with Rossano’s work, as his “Half Life” is currently on display in the museum’s Grand Hall. Rossano’s artwork focuses on the interdependence of the natural world and the animals that live in ecosystems threatened by human impact. “My whole thing is using creatures that are helpless as a metaphor for ourselves and what we’re doing to our environment,” he said. “I’m fully an outdoorsman, and I guess you could classify me as a naturalist too. My uncle instilled in me an appreciation for the natural world at a very young age.”

Rossano said he uses his art as a communication tool to make an impact on viewers to create a deeper awareness of the delicate natural world around them. “Beautiful things that make people ask questions,” as he described it.

In “Mirrored Murrelets,” Rossano highlights the marbled murrelet, a rather small and inconspicuous shore bird that nests primarily in old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. “The murrelet needs three different ecosystems to survive,” Rossano said, noting that the species lays just one egg at a time, and infrequently at that.

It’s the depletion of those very ecosystems necessary to the survival of the murrelet that the artist hopes to alert viewers to through his art, in this case the tentative balance of nature found only in old growth forests on which humans continue to have a negative impact.

According to Rossano, the glass birds that comprise “Mirrored Murrelets” will be arranged in the form of a hook shape, with a little pod on the side ready to dive in. “The hook design looks like a question mark. The answer to the question is reflected in these birds - the answer is us.” The mirrored surfaces of the birds will reflect the viewer’s image, symbolically suggesting that humans must ultimately take responsibility for the state of the environment.

“The reality is that the earth we live on is a dynamic system and humans, as well as its other inhabitants, are both connected and dependent on nature and each other for their existence,” Rossano wrote in his artist’s statement. “When the forests are gone, will we go with them?”

The finished installation will include circular benches placed alongside MOG’s reflecting pool made to look like stumps of felled trees to represent forests cut down to satisfy human consumerism. When the artwork travels to other museums, Rosanno said he’s formulating plans to include a slice of a cedar tree, an audio portion and photographs by the artist to embellish the message behind “Mirrored Murrelet.”

“As it moves away from the Pacific Northwest, it must have that component so that it resonates with different audiences,” he said.

While Rossano’s artistic and professional accomplishments are far too numerous to list, some highlights are: He earned a BFA in studio arts at Louisiana State University in 1987 and studied at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Wash. He works in a variety of media with a special focus on glass during the past 10 years. He has worked as artistic director for Waterford Crystal in Ireland, and as studio manager and glassblowing team leader for Chihuly Studio in Seattle. He was project manager for “Chihuly Over Venice” and has been an integral team member for a number of established artists including Lino Tagliapietra.

Rossano said he is “very pleased and thankful” that the museum has given him the opportunity to create “Mirrored Murrelets” as it fits in perfectly with his personal mission to create art that can be exhibited at museums around the country to show people “why we are so adamant about protecting what we have out here” in the Pacific Northwest.

“This allows me to say more things to more people…that every creature affected on this planet is a result of our indiscretion and we’re the only ones who can do anything to rectify it.

“Everyone at [MOG] is very excited about the idea being brought to completion. I appreciate everyone that will help to make it happen.”

Museum of Glass is located at 1801 Dock St. For information, call (253) 284-4750.