We sent in a design last week for a new sculpture for the Haliburton Sculpture Forest. Canadian artists were invited to submit proposals for more works of art to be installed in Glebe Park in the village of Haliburton, Ontario. The theme that has been suggested is 'Avian Fauna - Birds of the Haliburton Highlands'
The committee responsible for this initiative was looking for a work of artistic/design excellence and durability that suits the natural surroundings of the forest and addresses the theme of birds. Appropriately we designed a dry stone bird's nest containing two eggs decorated with a kind of mosaic stained glass motif. The eggs will be a foot and a half in diameter ovoid shapes consisting of a skeletal framework in metal which will be secured through the dry stone structure into a floating concrete pad six inches thick.
Chris Montgomery a jeweler and stained glass artist will be collaborating with me on this project.
The building material I have chosen is a local stone from a quarry near Minden. It is a lovely stratified granite material that comes in many beautiful colours. The nest will be a permanent installation built of random shapes and sizes of stones configured together in a kind of basket design.
The stone we will be using looks like this. Perhaps not what most birds would choose to build with but then our nest has to last much longer.
