Vintage Handcrafted Turkey Sculpture By Award Winning Artist Darlene Gill

Description

Vintage Handcrafted Turkey Sculpture By Award Winning Artist Darlene Gill. Condition is "Used".
This is an awesome depiction of a Wild Turkey in stoneware clay. Excellent condition and one of a kind. Shipped with USPS Priority Mail.
See info below on the artist:
For the past six years, Darlene Gill has captured numerous endangered wild birds, manatees and other wildlife - all in clay.
A naturalist and member of the Audubon Society, Gill supports the cause of preservation and protection of threatened and endangered species by forging her battle in a personal way: sculpting and painting creatures in their own environment.
Gill spends hours researching each subject through libraries, photographs and in their natural settings. Once she has created the animal sculpture, she works equally hard selecting the proper base on which to mold it by selecting something from the environment in which the wildlife lives.
Authenticity is a necessity for Gill. Every detail - from the color of the subject, whether in its immature or adult stage, to the scene created around the sculpture - is of equal importance.
"It's what makes each piece credible," said Gill, as she worked on a piece of freshly molded clay on its way to being an American bald eagle. "If you put a southern bird on wood that only comes from the North, it's not right."
That's why Gill's eagles, egrets, and owls are often sculpted on top of a cypress knee or perched atop a piece of wood gathered from the banks of the Indian River or the marshes of the St. Johns River.
Although all pieces are created at her Malabar home, Gill's talent and attention to detail have brought her numerous awards across the state and have created a demand for her work. "I didn't think you could make a living being a full-time artist," said Gill. "I found out different. Now I have to limit myself so it doesn't get ahead of me. I don't ever want it to feel like a job."
That's why she has cut back on art show appearances and limits her gallery displays. She currently limits her showings to only a handful of juried art shows and has sold her work to galleries in Islamorada, Key West and Myrtle Beach.
Gill focuses her work on Florida wildlife and has done manatees and sea turtles for the Florida Marine Council and Greenpeace. But birds are her claim to fame.
Her very first sculpture on commission was for her father. "He came to visit us from Baltimore and fell in love with our pelicans. I tried to find one (statue) for him as a gift and wasn't happy with any I found. So, I decided to do my own."
From there she expanded and made a few more that she entered in the juried arts show at Cocoa Village that year. Her pelicans soon became hot items at the arts and crafts shows and she soon was commissioned to supply them for gift shops at Walt Disney World. From pelicans she went on to other birds: wild turkeys, sandpipers, egrets and more.
"They started calling me the Bird Lady of Malabar, said Gill. "There are people who come back to the art shows each year to get more of my birds or call me here at home to have something made special. I'll make anything they want but I like to concentrate on birds native to Florida."
A shelf in her living room bears witness to that. There are eagles perched in trees or leaning over a nest feeding their young; pelicans on pilings, spoonbills on rocks, a bar owl, a screech owl, sandpipers, woodstorks, a sandhill crane, a great white egret and seveal blue herons. Scattered among the birds are a few baby alligators and sea turtles hatching out of eggs and one or two manatees and manatee families.
Each piece has been carefully molded and sculpted out of stoneware clay, fired, stained and mounted. Her pieces range in size from two inches to almost full scale and in price from to 0.
Gill says she hopes to contribute to future generations through her art.
"I hope it's not the only way future generations will have to learn about these species," said Gill. "I talk to people all the time at art shows about the birds, manatees and sea turtles, their habits and why they're important to the environment. I hope by seeing my work it will help educate them to start appreciating what's around them. If we don't do something now, they won't be there for future generations."