If you’ve strolled through Shelter Cove Community Park lately, you might have noticed something glimmering in the Lowcountry light – something bold, intricate, and quietly mesmerizing. No, it’s not a new seafood shack or a dolphin doing backflips for the tourists. It’s art. Big, beautiful, made-you-stop-in-your-sandals kind of art.
This brand-new public art installation by interdisciplinary artist Dana Montlack is unlike anything else on the island. Suspended between sculpture and science, beauty and biodiversity, the work captures Hilton Head Island’s coastal ecosystems in dazzling layers of imagery, fired directly into glass, glowing with color, and pulsing with meaning.
Artist Dana Montlack in her studio
But the installation isn’t just pretty. It’s purposeful.
Installed in early 2024, the Shelter Cove piece is a trio of glass panels, each one 5 feet by 6 feet and weighing in at 250 pounds. They are mounted like windows into the heart of Hilton Head’s most vital environments: ocean, marsh, and maritime forest.
But these aren’t just digital images layered on top. Each panel is created through a meticulous kiln-firing process, where Montlack’s intricate compositions – built from photographs, scientific visuals, and hand-drawn elements – are heat-fused directly into the glass. The result is a glowing, light-reactive surface that shifts with the sun, drawing the viewer in with color and complexity.
And once you’re looking, you really start seeing.
Loggerhead turtles and redfish swim alongside cyanobacteria and sea lettuce. Periwinkles and pelicans mingle with oysters and spartina. Ghost crabs, moon jellies, plankton, and even topographic maps of the region’s waterways emerge from the surface.
It’s the South Carolina coast as you’ve never seen it before – teeming, tangled, and totally alive.
“I wanted the work to invite curiosity,” Montlack said. “To pull people in with beauty, and then keep them there with wonder.”
Marsh depicts the delicate world of spartina grasses, birds, crawfish, ghost shrimp, turtles, and more, above and below the waterline. My goal was to create cohesive works that view these environments from both above and below.
About the Artist: Science, Soul, and Sea
Montlack isn’t your typical artist. She’s part photographer, part researcher, part ocean advocate, and all heart. With degrees in fine art from UC Santa Cruz and Otis Parsons School of Art and Design, she’s spent decades blending art and science in ways that spark awe and encourage environmental reflection.
Her signature style? A form of “hybridized” image-making that combines photography, cartographic data, microscopic imagery, and drawing. Then, through her kiln-firing process, she embeds these multi-layered compositions into glass, creating sculptural pieces that are both scientifically informed and emotionally evocative.
Montlack’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, at Burning Man (yes, that Burning Man), and in private and public spaces from Dubai to La Jolla. She’s collaborated with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and recently completed a NOAA-funded visual study of climate change’s effects on the Georgia coast.
The Hilton Head installation is among her most meaningful.
Maritime Forest features oaks, pines, and soft palmettos overlaid by hawks, egrets, butterflies, and other creatures. Some of these species are threatened. Concentric rings are drawn from the cross-section of an oak, while lines from maps and environmental data tie the piece directly to this ecosystem.
“This one’s really special,” she said. “It’s not hidden in a gallery. It’s out in the open – where families walk, where kids ask questions, where it becomes part of daily life. It’s for everyone.”
Let’s be honest: Public art can be hit or miss. Sometimes it’s confusing. Sometimes it’s forgettable. But sometimes, when done right, it becomes a landmark. A conversation starter. A reason to look up and look around.
Hilton Head got it right.
This piece doesn’t just reflect the natural beauty of the Lowcountry. It deepens our connection to it. You start to realize, as you gaze through the glass, how many creatures live just beneath the surface, how many invisible threads hold this coastal world together.
In Montlack’s words, “We are not owners of the land. We’re visitors, privileged to witness its complexity and grace.”
Ocean reflects conservation sites where coral is being cultivated. Sea turtles, corals, and jellies are among the animals living in this environment. Bathymetric lines and coordinates reference areas of conservation specific to the region and to Hilton Head.
She often describes her work as using “beauty as a Trojan horse.” It first draws you in with its vibrancy and elegance, but stay with it long enough, and it begins to whisper. About fragility. About resilience. About our role as stewards – not just spectators – of the natural world.
In a time when sea levels are rising and shorelines are shifting, public art like this becomes more than decorative. It becomes necessary.
Let’s zoom in on the three panels.
OCEAN: This piece draws from nautical charts and bathymetric maps, showcasing creatures both iconic and overlooked: loggerhead turtles, redfish, blue crabs, sea lettuce, diatoms, jellyfish. It’s a celebration of biodiversity beneath the waves.
MARSH: Here, you’ll find ghost crabs, fiddler crabs, oysters, periwinkles, ibis, herons, and spartina grass, all suspended in layered, tidal compositions. It’s a glowing tribute to one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet.
MARITIME FOREST: Hilton Head’s forests often take a backseat to its beaches, but not here. This panel honors the magnolias, loblolly pines, live oaks, saw palmettos, owls, and hawks that define the inland wilds of the island. Spanish moss, of course, drapes quietly through it all.
Together, the three works create a full portrait of the island – not just its scenery, but its spirit.
Why Public Art Matters
Here’s the thing: When art shows up in a museum, you expect it. When it shows up by a fountain or mid-stroll between lunch and shopping? That’s when magic happens.
Public art has the power to shape a town’s identity. It sparks conversation, inspires curiosity, and gives people a reason to linger. It becomes a symbol, a selfie stop, a teachable moment, and a memory – all at once.
For vacationers, Montlack’s work becomes a moment of unexpected connection. For locals, it’s a reminder of what we’re protecting. For kids, it’s a visual playground. For town leaders, it’s a brilliant investment in culture, place-making, and civic pride.
Installations like this show that a town isn’t just a collection of buildings – it’s a community with a voice. And thanks to Montlack, Hilton Head’s voice just got a little more poetic.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “We need something like this in our town,” you’re absolutely right. Montlack’s work belongs in every coastal city with a story to tell.
Her installations are more than art: They are experiences. They’re science lessons. They’re meditations. And they’re deeply rooted in the places where land and water meet.
As coastal communities across the country grapple with the realities of climate change, rising seas, and ecological fragility, it’s artists like Montlack who help us see the soul of a place, and why it’s worth protecting.
So whether you’re a city official, an art lover, or someone who believes in the power of beauty to spark change, this is your cue.
Let’s make more space for art. Let’s celebrate nature. And let’s keep filling our towns with windows that help us see the world – and ourselves – a little more clearly.
You can find Montlack’s Hilton Head Island installation among other public art at Shelter Cove Community Park, near the waterfront pavilion. Whether you cycle by, stroll past, or make a special trip, one thing is guaranteed: You’ll leave seeing this island a little differently.
To learn more, visit danamontlack.com or follow @danamontlack on Instagram.
