Exhibition: Bird’s Eye View: Four Perspectives, featuring Chris Maynard, David Tomb, Shae Warnick & Chester Wilcox On view: Through September 4, 2023
Where: Wildling Museum, 1511-B Mission Drive, Solvang, CA 93463 Website: www.wildlingmuseum.org/news/birds-eye-view
Left: David Tomb, King Tides and Elusive Rails (detail), Mixed media installation, 2016-2023, Courtesy the Artist. Right: Chris Maynard, Stop and Drop, 2022, Carved feathers, naturally shed, Courtesy the Artist.
SOLVANG —The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature is pleased to announce Bird’s Eye View: Four Perspectives, on view from March 18 – September 4, 2023, featuring new and recent works by artists Chris Maynard, David Tomb, Shae Warnick, and Chester Wilcox. The public is invited to celebrate the new exhibition at an opening reception at the Wildling on Sunday, March 19, 2023 from 3 – 5 p.m.
People live among more than an estimated 10,000 bird species worldwide. These animals uniquely inform the works of the four artists featured in this exhibition. Realistic wood carvings by Chester Wilcox, intricately shaped and carved feathers by Chris Maynard, a hand-crafted fabric bird doll aviary by Shae Warnick, and an immersive wetland environment installation by David Tomb all express the magic, mystery, and incredible diversity of the avian world.
“We are excited to share these four artists with our community,” says Stacey Otte-Demangate, Wildling Museum Executive Director. “We hope that the exhibition will encourage our guests to better appreciate birds. They are crucial to ecosystems everywhere and are a constant reminder of the joys and importance of nature wherever you live.”
Bird’s Eye View will also explore the impact of birds in our world – many bird species serve as valuable pollinators, others eat insects and rodents that would otherwise decimate gardens and vegetation, and some help to disperse plant seeds, playing a vital role in biodiversity.
For more information, go to: www.wildlingmuseum.org/news/birds-eye-view. Questions? Contact info@wildlingmuseum.org or call (805) 686-8315.
Grateful thanks to exhibition sponsors The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation, Pete & Becky Adams, Kevin & Terrie Patterson, George & Denise Rose, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, and donors to the Patti Jacquemain Exhibition Fund.
Left: Shae Warnick, Aviary of the Reverend William J. Long (detail), Mixed media, Courtesy the Artist. Right: Chester Wilcox, North American male kestrel (detail), Carved wood decoy. Photo by Catherine Mijs, Courtesy Outdoor California.
About the Artists
Chris Maynard
Birds were always a part of Chris Maynard’s childhood. As a young person, he took refuge in the woods around his home in Washington State where, his head nestled in moss, he watched the birds up in the tall trees. He began working with feathers at age 12.
Today, Maynard carves feathers into intricate art in order to make their natural beauty more noticeable. His work highlights the patterns and colors of the feathers themselves, inviting the viewer to look and look again. For him, feathers represent flight, transformation, and a bridge between our present lives and our dreams. He displays his work in shadow boxes, a signature art form he developed that enchants people around the world.
Maynard works with feathers from turkeys, parrots, peacocks, and other birds and crafts them into scenes that are displayed in his world-renowned shadow boxes. A conservationist at heart, Maynard’s feathers are legally obtained. Many of the feathers are naturally shed which means that the birds they came from may still be alive today.
Maynard’s work is included in private collections and featured in publications in North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. His 2014 book, Feathers, Form & Function, highlights his work and tells stories about what feathers are, what roles they fill for birds, and why people find them alluring.
Learn more about Chris and his work at www.featherfolio.com and on Instagram at @featherfolio.
David Tomb
David Tomb received a BFA in Painting and Drawing in 1984 from California State University, Long Beach. Since then, he has maintained studios in Oakland, New York, San Francisco, and currently Marin county. David has exhibited in over 100 group exhibitions and nearly 40 solo exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. His most recent solo exhibition: Rock and Rockfowl was exhibited at the Fresno Art Museum in 2018. His work is currently in a three-person show at the College of the Desert, Monumentally Fragile: Large Scale Works. His work is in many public collections, including the Embassies of the United States, Manila, Philippines and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; art collections of the Consulate General of the United States, Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana; museum collections at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Oakland Museum of California, Huntington Library Art Collections, Arkansas Art Center, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and Fresno Art Museum, among others. David’s work has been widely published and reviewed in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s, Art LTD, Three Penny Review, and The San Francisco Chronicle, among others.
Learn more about David and his work at www.davidtomb.com and on Instagram at @david.tomb.
Shae Warnick
Shae Warnick is an artist and naturalist whose multidisciplinary study combines scientific subjects such as ornithology and botany with printmaking and painting. In addition to the time she spends in the studio, her dedication to natural history has led her to work with museums and research institutions across the country, including the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the Punta Cana Foundation Group in the Dominican Republic, and the Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati. Her recent work examines the increasingly decorative and curated role that nature plays in our lives and the importance of balancing science with sentiment, fiction, and folklore.
Learn more about Shae and her work at www.shaewarnick.com and on Instagram at @shaewarnick.
Chester Wilcox
Artist Chester Wilcox’s fascination with woodcarving began at the age of eight after winning his first pocketknife following a Boy Scout competition. He quickly took up carving small animals and boats out of any wood he could find, and by 1982 he began focusing his work on carving duck decoys. Today, Wilcox’s detailed life-like carvings include every kind of bird species – ranging from songbirds, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, and more. He is a member of the Pacific Flyway Decoy Association and teaches private decoy and bird carving classes. Wilcox’s ultra- realistic bird carvings can take up to several years to create, using a range of tools that include chisels and X-Acto knives, wood-burning instruments, and even dental drills. Wilcox earned his Master’s degree in outdoor education with an emphasis in field research and is an avid lifelong outdoorsman and conservationist.
About the Wildling Museum
The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, where art and nature meet, offers visitors a unique perspective on the importance of preserving our natural heritage. Through the eyes of artists, and education and field experiences, guests can renew their relationship with the wilderness and understand its fragile nature – hopefully leaving more committed toward ensuring those spaces remain for future generations. Current visiting hours are weekdays 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday. For more information, and to volunteer or join as a member to support this important local arts and nature institution, please visit www.wildlingmuseum.org.