There are allot of finished or almost finished pieces that I have sculpted for Windstone that we have never produced. Sometimes they are just finished sculpture, but sometimes they nearly reach the stage of being in production before we go “eh” and shelve the idea.
This chick is one of the ones we made mold on, cast a few, test painted … and then kinda lost interest in it.
Still, I love this chicken sculpture. I have always adored realistic poultry art. Ever since I was a little kid I simply cherished the little porcelain chickens I owned that were sculpted by artist Maureen Calvert Love *. You probably know of her * horse figures from the Breyer company, but she has also sculpted some of the most gorgeous poultry figures, as well as tons of other domestic animals and wildlife, for the Hagen-Renaker company.
She has always been my idol because she sculpted living creatures that could breathe. She didn’t just make statues of animals like many other artists…there is a subtle difference, and like all magic, it’s hard to explain.
She drew and sculpted from life as much as possible, so, because I want to be like her, I too sculpt from life whenever I can. For this little chicken, I used one of my Aracauna chicks as a model. The jerk bit me and grew into a nasty rooster, but this chick still shows him as a sweet little hatchling, though if you really know your chickens, you can already see that macho look in his eye.
We are not going to produce this sculpture as a candle lamp, but I may remove the candle holder he is wearing and use him as plain old lawn chicken…or better yet, re-sculpt him and make him into a baby cockatrice! Imagine a whole family of cement demon yard chickens! They could be eating a plastic flamingo or a gnome.
I really sculpt this stuff for myself you know.
One of these little candle lamp chicks is being auctioned on ebay, starting on June 18, 2009.If you would like to check out that auction go to ebay and search on “Windstone Editions” to see whatever good stuff is on there today.
*Here is a link I found to a site that has some rare and original Maureen Love pieces pictured. I bid on many of these when they hit ebay a couple years ago and only snagged one (I guess I was bidding against these people!) but it was a treat to see all these wonderful old pieces. http://www.geocities.com/hrhorsenut/MaureenLoveEstate.html)
* ultimate superlative goes here
