St. Paul Cityscape
wood sculpture 19 x 28-1/4 x 1-1/2
$2,200
Chris Baird
A Word from the Artist:
“Our family spent more time than most thinking about wood. We collected antiques and folk art, my dad carved, my grandpa could make boats and whistles
of wood, we talked about the color of wood and the grain and how things were
built. In 1989, I began accumulating woodworking tools and started carving.
Working in wood made me feel that I had come home and what started as
tinkering soon overshadowed my other painting and drawing.
As a carver, I identify most with American folk artists. This frees me to draw from a wide range of influences, ideas, and materials, and to use humor in
my work. It also frees me to obsess and give my packrat tendencies free rein.
Pulling together collections of driftwood, string, magazine clippings, copper, buttons, and parts of furniture, and combining them with scraps of mythology, jumprope rhymes, tramp art, dreams, toys, and fine art make sense to me.
I like unexpected juxtapositions, such as painting a landscape on the side of a
fish, or covering an innocent looking little carved pig with sharpened bristles. I
consider my work most successful when some kind of surprise is delivered. Animals as subject matter provide me with a rich source for ideas in their variety of shapes, textures, colors, and stances. I started making the wall animals as a joke about trophy heads, but hope each one has a presence beyond stillness. I try to balance humor with something darker, be it pathos or just a really prickly surface treatment. I think of the elements in my art as a crew of drunken sailors, and with any luck, I stop the piece during a good moment in their fleeting cooperation.”
-Chris Baird
About the Artist:
Since graduating from Macalester College in 1975, Chris Baird’s work has run the gamut from mural painting to pastel and oil landscapes to her current painted wood sculpture. Baird’s many murals in St. Paul include the Bober Drug Store and the Newell Park mural at Snelling and Englewood. Baird has designed and painted video sets, carousel animals, and movie and theater sets. She has taught several mural painting workshops. Baird’s paintings and drawings have been exhibited at Groveland Gallery and the Minnesota State Fair. Her wood carvings are available through Vern Carver & Beard Galleries as well as Sticks in Berkeley, California.
Baird’s work is part of many private and corporate collections. Bye-Bye Butterfly
wood sculpture
16-1/4" x 6-3/4" x 3
$700
| Evening Swan
painted wood sculpture
25 x 12
$1,950
Sandpiper on Rock
carved wood sculpture
$1,400
Anatomy of Fun
painted wood sculpture
with moving parts
13 x 22
$3,600 |
