Untitled (Nativity)

David Butler spent much of his adult life working in Louisiana sawmills. After an injury led to his early retirement in the 1960s, he bought a small house and planted a garden: “I like pretty things in my yard, you see. But when the storms come and it gets cold, my flowers die.” Butler subsequently decided to make colorful creations out of cut sheet tin so that he could have a garden like environment all year round. Butler also shielded his windows with cut tin shades that cast silhouetted shadows inside the house. These window shades sometimes feature religious imagery, like this nativity scene depicting Mary, Joseph, and the Christ child beneath three stars. —Lauren Palmor