Even though Rona Pondick incorporates casts from her own body in her work, her figurative sculpture is not about self-representation, nor is it gendered. Rather, Pondick states that it is “about a kind of emotional and psychological state that makes you aware of your own body.” Exploring metaphorical and psychological dimensions of the human form, Pondick produced a group of animal/human hybrids of which Marmot is among the first. Combining techniques from casting, to sculpting by hand, to computer-aided modeling, Pondick fused her head and hands with the body of a marmot creating a hybrid form that at once engenders compassion, curiosity and repulsion.