Red-Winged Blackbird
Date1973
Artist
Miles Burkholder Carpenter
1889 - 1985
MediumCarved and painted wood, ferrous metal wire
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number2024.701.2
DescriptionWooden bird carved and painted black with red and yellow accents to resemble a red-winged black bird.Label TextMiles Carpenter was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but in 1901, his father moved the entire family to the area of Waverly, Virginia, where he operated a sawmill. Eventually, Miles ran his own milling business and expanded into other ventures including an icehouse, an outdoor movie theater, and a roadside vegetable and fruit stand. He married Mary Elizabeth Stahl in 1915, and the couple had one son. The onset of World War II slowed work at the mill, prompting Carpenter to begin creating decorative carvings out of odd bits of "leftover" wood. By 1942, the pace of his sawmill business had resumed, and it was not until 1955 that he again found time to whittle and paint for pleasure.
Following his wife's death in 1966, Carpenter turned increasingly to whittling and painting. Today he is known for a tremendous variety of imaginative carvings, including animals, biblical figures, politicians, monsters, and devils, many of them patently inspired and guided by the natural twists and turns of the roots and branches that were his raw materials.
