Mother Bird - 2005

In the 1990’s we lived in St. Augustine, Florida and operated the Fine Fish Gallery and Store. During that time I veered away from abstraction and sculpted fish as my main subject resulting in the series 50 Fish. After a move to Lexington, Virginia and a five-year hiatus I started back to sculpture decidedly returning to my abstract roots. 

This was a piece of 4” x 4” powder post beetled mesquite from a mill in Bastrop, Texas picked up during my Dallas years. It started out as the last sculpture in the 50 Fish series. It was to represent a man being happily consumed by a rising fish—his head the only remaining part not ingested. It was half finished and abandoned, but it survived the move to Lexington and served as a transition to the OHHH SHOW. The roughed out man-head became the ovoid and the fish the Mother Bird. I began it on my mother’s birthday—Valentine’s Day 2005 and completed on March 15, 2005. It’s 34” tall and has a three piece base of steatite, oak, and cherry to support it