Michael Stephenson

Purple Heart, Yellow Heart, Red Heart Wood Bird, 2022
sculpture
10 x 6 in
$85
Inquire
Michael Stephenson removes wood until only the simple beauty of the bird form remains. Made of the most beautiful woods he can find on the earth, they each unique in wood and shape. Each piece can be removed from the stand so you can connect to the wood by holding bird in hand and enjoying the grain. This wood sculpture is composed of an Amboyna Burl full body and Mopani base.

The artist named this specific bird, Triple Heart as it is made from the heart of three different native hardwoods. The head is purple heart wood, the body yellow heart wood, and the tail is red heart wood. The base of this bird is Mississippi Bodock also known as Osage Orange.


Michael Stephenson

Michael Stephenson is a lifelong Mississippian with a nearly lifelong appreciation for the natural world. Lately, that interest along with a forty-year woodwork avocation has resulted in a range of semi-abstract bird sculptures. The intention is less depiction than evocation, more an invitation for the viewer's own musings than an ornithology snapshot. 

 

The hardwoods used are those that best serve the beauty of the subjects themselves: redbud, pear, and maple burl from local sources, redheart, amboyna, padauk, bubinga and other sustainable species from around the world. 

 

T.S. Eliot's epic poem Burnt Norton features a bird beckoning us to return to "our first world". On a smaller, quieter scale, the wooden birds in this series are an invitation to summon memories of simple pleasures and moments of fleeting grace and beauty from our past.

 

 

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