LOS ANGELES, CA.- Imagine carving into a single bird feather with a surgical scalpel to cut several individual bird outlines. That is the art practice of Chris Maynard. Over his career, he has carved hundreds of tiny birds and arranged them into delicate configurations both contained in shadow boxes and scattered over wall installations. These configurations allude to a range of bird activities, from dynamic murmurations to the ecosystems they are part of. A selection of Maynard's work, including an in-situ wall installation, will be on display at the Craft in America Center starting January 18, 2025.

Maynard carves feathers into intricate art and creates elegant arrangements in order to heighten awareness of their natural beauty. His work highlights the subtle patterns and colors of the feathers themselves, inviting the viewer to look deeply. For him, feathers represent flight, transformation, and a bridge between our present lives and our dreams.

“We want to fly but cannot.” he says. “But birds can, so their feathers become symbols of this yearning.

Feathers are perfect by themselves.” Presenting them slightly altered but still retaining their featherness, he encourages people to see feathers in new ways, promoting beauty and new connections.

Maynard works with feathers gathered sustainably from birds such as turkeys, parrots, peacocks, and many more. A conservationist at heart, many of the feathers are sourced from natural shedding, which means that the birds they came from may still even be alive today.

Birds were always a part of Maynardʼs childhood. As a young person, he took refuge in the woods around his home in Washington State where, his head nestled in moss, he observed the birds high up in the trees. He first began working with feathers at age 12.