Great Blue Heron Sundial with Bronze Flight Feather, (sculpture)

Object Details

Notes: Save Outdoor Sculpture, New York survey, 1994.; Image on file.; (On leg of heron:) JRS 1991 (On lower left edge of flight feather:) JRS 1991 signed; The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Summary: A great blue heron, painted black, stands with its wings outstretched as if about to take to flight. The long feather projecting from the heron's head casts a shadow along thirteen brass buttons indicating the hours from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. riveted along the edges of the wings. A lost flight feather lies on the ground below one of the heron's wings. The heron was fabricated using the traditional blacksmith techniques of bending, cutting, drawing out, upsetting, and welding. Hammer blows, punches, and chisels were used to suggest feathering. The heron is mounted atop a granite rock outcropping.

Medium: Heron: mild steel and brass, painted; Lost flight feather: naval bronze; Base: granite