Guest blog post: Honoring wildlife through art

By Jim Burcio, Master Carver

On July 16 and 17, wildfowl carvers from across the United States and Canada will gather at the DoubleTree Hotel in Sacramento for the 41st annual Wildfowl Art Classic hosted by the Pacific Flyway Decoy Association. Bird carving is a modern art form whose origin is based in the craft of decoy carving. An original American art form, found in no other continent or culture, decoy carving was a functional craft borrowed from the east coast Indians by skilled wood workers who migrated from Europe to settle in America. Over time the art form evolved to include any and all birds. There are over a dozen large shows throughout the United States, the PFDA show being the second oldest annual show in existence.

Bird carvers come in a variety of skill levels; novice, intermediate, open, and professional. Their work can be isolated to one type of bird, such as ducks, or involve several forms including raptors, songbirds, shorebirds, upland game birds, and sea birds. As a carver of 35 years and counting, I find myself motivated by several factors. At the beginning of each year, I make a list of twenty carving projects that I would look forward to completing. Some of these projects will include new challenges, others might include a selected species by a show sponsor, and a few will be birds that have burned themselves into my memory during a bird watching trip.

For the upcoming show I am working on an American Crow (a black on black painting challenge), a Snowy Plover (a bird I have carved a few times and hope to improve upon), a Spotted Sandpiper, and an American Egret whose image is burned into my brain…. Hopefully when I am done, it will stop haunting me.

Snowy Plover carving to date

We are very fortunate to have an abundance of bird life in Northern California. Among the best places to see large concentrations of birds and other wildlife are California rice fields, home to hundreds of different species. If you are drawn to get up close and personal with our feathered friends, then be sure to drop into this one of a kind show being held right here in Sacramento. For more information go to the PFDA website at www.pacificflyway.org.

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Jim Burcio is a master carver and has competed nationally in wildfowl carving shows. He has been the featured carver at the Academy of Arts and Sciences in San Francisco (2001), the Lynn House Museum in Antioch (2002), and displayed his work in the McHenry Museum in Modesto (2006). Jim was also one of three carvers who preformed an “Artist in Action” exhibit at the Randall Museum in San Francisco (2004). For the past fifteen years, Jim has annually taught decoy-carving seminars, and judged at the Pacific Flyway