The idea of incorporating part of a musical instrument very much intrigues me. Spending an afternoon, wandering around the music store, looking at all of the different instruments, my ideas went from a trumpet to the violin, and a number of instruments in between. As I thought about the different sounds that these instruments make, I was originally drawn to the flute or piccolo, however, I couldn’t figure out how to incorporate a bird into the design, so I continued looking, when I walked into the string section, and saw the violin. At that point I could picture a violinist playing, with a bird sitting on the scroll singing along.
Now that the instrument was decided on, the next step was deciding on one of the many songbirds that inhabit the rocky mountain region. I studied the different bird species, and looked at their size, their colors and listened to their songs. I felt it important that whichever bird I picked, the bird I sculpted needed to be life size. The Yellow Warbler fit the sculpture perfectly with its size, beautiful song and color. As I worked on the design I decided use only the neck, I felt that I needed a connection the violin with the Warbler. By stringing it with real violin strings it connected the song of the bird with the instrument itself.
