In the early eighties, Carl McCleskey and Betsy Scott, a husband and wife team, migrated from the increasing urbanization of Marietta, Georgia, to relative wilderness in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. A portion of the property they acquired had been strip-mined and was in dire need of reclamation. They bought equipment and set about restoring the land with the needs of wildlife foremost in their minds. They built ponds, planted thousands of trees, and physically built a house so secluded that they had to generate their own electricity for the first eight years. Their land now teems with wildlife- furred, feathered, and scaled of every description-- rattlesnakes to bobcats.

Carl's artistic endeavors turned almost exclusively to wildlife art. He began to exhibit his work in l989 after a friend set up a one-man show for him at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This exposure inspired him to show at The Southeastern Wildlife Art Show in Charleston, South Carolina and at numerous other wildlife art shows around the country where he has won awards as best artist, best of show for three dimensional work, etc. Carl and Betsy subsequently came to the attention of the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans and were selected to sculpt a life-size lowland gorilla family for their zoo. They were then asked to create a life-size African lion pride for placement in the zoo and two mirror-image male lions to guard the new entrance to The Audubon Nature Institute. Also, for Audubon, they have sculpted a life-size cheetah, Thomson's gazelle, Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, and are currently working on a life-size baboon mother and baby posing on a park bench as a photo op for children and adults. Folks at Audubon have told them that the area where the lions reside is now the most popular spot in the zoo!

Their artwork ranges in size from miniature to monumental. Due to an increasing number of requests, historical and figurative portraiture now constitutes a good portion of their work. Carl and Betsy's works refuse to sit still. They have migrated to many parts of the country where they inhabit a variety of collections, public and private.