For Chris Maynard feathers mark nature’s pinnacle of achievement: the intersection of function and beauty.Evacuate plays with beauty and consumption. Heave and Sluice spew alluring parasite-ridden pigeon feathers like a blown water pipe. In Vex, Stiffle, and many of her other sculptures Kate MccGwire creates beautiful and disturbing feather-clad creatures in museum displays that defy naturalist categorization. Kate MccGwire uses feather sculptures to explore the play of opposites on an aesthetic, intellectual and visceral level.Enjoy, you’ll never look at feathers the same way again. Feathers’ diverse applications and long history of use presents its own challenge for artists who want to express something new. Exceptionally light, colorful, and fluffy, feathers have been used to embody the fragile and the sensitive. Their physical characteristics are equally diverse and distinct. And through feather fashion trends, and the resulting decimation of bird populations, feathers have likewise come to symbolize vanity, decadence, and environmental destruction. Fundamental to masquerade masks, boas, and cabaret dancers, feathers also evoke the glamorous, the flirtatious, and the whimsical. Across time and cultures, feathers have symbolized ascension, enlightenment, and spiritual evolution. In addition to evoking the characteristics of the birds from which they come-think of the differences between eagle, peacock and pheasant-feathers have come to symbolize the power of the wild and freedom from earthly confines. Simply handle the media and reflect on, and then play up, its inherent characteristics. There is tremendous freedom in experimenting with a range of common everyday objects without any preconceived notions. One way to cultivate creativity is to make art from the mundane. Creativity re-envisions the long established-art made from feathers.

7 feathers