As part of my current small solo show which included some paintings as well, I was most excited about handbuilding these masks of some of our endemic forest birds.
On the island of O’ahu, there are twelve species known to have lived since the arrival of western colonizers in 1778, and I made a wall mask of each of these twelve.
I think the most challenging part of the project was trying to bring to life these little birds that are now super rare, and many have been gone for a while.
(I guess it was also challenging to play around with what might help keep these buggers balanced and stable while hanging on the wall.)
Apologies in advance for the number of photos, but I wanted to show them all without spamming with separate posts for each!
(They’re each approximately the size that would fit on a human head.)
These_are_stunning. Stunning! I can only imagine how impactful each would have been to see in person, as I think there is only a hint of that seeing the full display shown from the side here and straight on in your paintings post
Your amazing Stoneware Bird Masks are a Featured Project this week! Congratulations! 