The artist himself previously described what he does: “I carve birds’ feathers into intricate art in order to make their natural beauty more noticeable. The work highlights the patterns and colors of the feathers themselves, inviting the viewer to look and look again. For me, feathers represent flight, transformation, and a bridge between our present lives and our dreams.” Chris’s art requires a lot of patience and attention to the details that deserve another look and appreciation. More info: Instagram | featherfolio.com | Facebook “I have always been enamored with feathers and I want to foster appreciation and understanding of the natural world. Birds shed feathers sort of as gifts and yet they retain their durability, beauty, and complexity. I share a yearning to fly with people from all walks of life as feathers are universally symbols of this yearning. Because of this, it made sense to focus on feathers as my medium. So I developed a method of preparing the feathers so they will hold together to carve,” shared Chris. “Feathers for me are my canvas. So I like big feather canvases like turkey tail feathers. Birds have colorful feathers but the reds and yellows are usually small body feathers so I don’t work much with color. However, feathers come in all sorts of patterns — mostly to help a bird hide, to blend into their environment like camouflage,” explained Chris. “I want to honor birds and their feather gifts so I don’t flatten them to a background but keep their natural shapes (and color). To do that, I raise each carved feather about a centimeter from the cotton paper background. So the mounted feathers appear three-dimensional, which they are. This in turn creates shadows that are integral to my work,” wrote Chris. “When we think of the meaning in feathers, we first think of flight. I want to feel what it is like to bodily swoop and soar and look over the earth. But I can’t do that, so feathers substitute as symbols for this yearning. Although I am inspired by many things like the birds themselves, the theme of flight is often a major influence. So the messages are often about hope, the achievement of dreams, and transformation. An ultimate compliment to me about my work is when someone says, ‘I now see feathers and birds in a new way.’" All of this is kind of a meditative focus for me, it is my happy place,” shared Chris. And lastly, Chris added: “I support laws meant to protect birds even when they restrict me from using certain feathers. Other than turkey feathers, the feathers I use are mostly shed from captive birds that are native to countries outside North America.” Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
