An installation artist who uses common materials such as toothpicks, tar paper, drinking straws and paper plates to achieve the effect of natural phenomena, Tara Donovan describes herself as "fascinated with creating chaos out of something and then restructuring it and giving it new order." She says her goal is to transcend her materials so that "what they are made from is not initially apparent." She begins by creating a small-scale version of the work she envisions, and then works with studio assistants to make the final installation that can take up to six-hundred hours.

Many of her works are large-scale from a single material in "massive quantity" such as her entry in the 2000 Whitney Biennial---a miniatu...