This year the annual Columbia Flyway Show was held in Astoria for the first time. For the past ten years I have been doing the data entry and processing for the show. I had wanted to get away from it but this year they really didn’t have an alternative.
The Columbia Flyway Show is a carving exhibition oriented to the display of waterfowl and other wildlife wood carvings. When I was first involved with the show it was held in Vancouver, WA and put on by the local wood carving club–which I was a member. In 2019 due to the poor health of some club officers, a different group of folks took over management of the show. The club officers decided to spin off show management to the new folks.
The show has many categories and would like to expand into more areas than just duck decoys. As such, they have entry classes and activities especially oriented to children. There is no charge to come out and see the carvings. There is a small fee to enter a carving.
Since the old venue was still observing COVID restrictions, show organizers had to find a new place to hold the show. The Clatsop County Fairgrounds made them an attractive offer—so, Astoria, Oregon is the new location.
I stayed at the Riverwalk Inn on the Astoria marina. Here is the morning view from my room moments before the fog crept up the river obscuring my view of the bridge.
The event was held at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds which is south of town on the Wallooskee river. The Wallooskee is tidal in this portion of its flow, and the tide was out in the morning, so the smell of exposed mud flats was noticeable in the exhibit hall. It reminded me of happy times paddling among the clams of Elkhorn Slough at Moss Landing, CA.
I enjoy looking at the decoys. There are many categories to reflect the various goals of the carvers. I found this one attractive–good feather detail and color.
These miniatures were wonderfully done. I especially like the plover. The wood base is rippled like the bird is running through a small wave flowing over the beach sand. I can imagine it legs twinkling in the afternoon sun as it darts to and fro in the waves.
These Zebra were very well done. I don’t know enough about Zebra to know what type they are, but the composition is really, really well done. Sadly, my photograph doesn’t do the carving justice.
This little brown creeper was favored by the judges.
Technically, the carving is great but I don’t see anything special about the composition. The feathers look very real, slightly soft. The legs are bent correctly and the small touch of raising the feathers at the rear of the eye stripe is great. However, there isn’t anything to draw the eye to the bird, and being so small it is easily overlooked.
I would have tipped the head a bit to one side as if the bird is checking out the bark. Or perhaps pointed his slightly open beak toward the bark as if trying to catch some small insect. Placing the bird in a fork or some other mount with more interest would also be an improvement.
I like the composition in this carving of an immature Coopers Hawk. However, technically the carving is not as advanced as the is the creeper, the head and neck look hard and solid. The bird’s feet also look awkward, and the branch lacks life. But the body position of the bird and the sweep of the branch on which it sits are really attractive.
It just needs a little more technical advancement. I’m not skilled enough to even replicate the looks of this bird, much less offer any tips on how to achieve it. However, I’m looking at things with a different eye than I did even two years ago. A big thank you to Sean Tucker for that. I rate this carving much higher in artistry than the creeper–but that’s just me.
I was also intrigued by the carvings of feathers. I’ve tried this with little success. My feathers look more like wood than feathers. These are beautiful. I have a long way to go to improve my carving to this point.
Another carving that is both technically and artistically great is the carving of Nannie Dee. Nannie Dee is rendered as the figurehead of the clipper ship Cutty-Sark.
Nannie Dee is a character of Robert Burn’s poem Tam o’ Shanter. In the poem, she is a witch who dances while wearing an old linen chemise, or sark, that was too short for her—hence cutty. A drunken Tam responds to her dancing by shouting out “Weel done, Cutty-sark!” and leaves the scene on his horse. Tam hurries to cross a running stream—witches and devils can’t cross running water. In the carving Nannie Dee holds the end of the tail that she has pulled from Tam’s horse as they escape across the water. The carving itself is impressive, standing over three feet tall. Nannie is painted in the same way as the Cutty Sark’s figurehead. A description of the ship and the story behind her is included on the plaque. I was so happy to see this at the show–very Astoria.
Another non-decoy class at the show is Northwest Coast carvings. I was surprised that the winner wasn’t even a “real” Northwest Coast carving, which was a bit disappointing to me. I was hoping that there would be some recognition of the native art, sadly they don’t have judges that know the meaning behind the figures–or recognize the forms giving rise to that meaning. I am totally unqualified to render judgement on more than a tiny segment of the art.
Don’t get me wrong, the carving that won is technically very good—it simply doesn’t reflect my understanding of the traditional art form. The formline figures are wrong and I don’t understand the face on the raccoon’s hip.
I preferred this mask, which is a bit muddled in the techniques. I can’t place the form line into any tradition I recognize, and the color convention is totally odd. But at least they stuck with traditionally rendered form line figures. The artist’s understanding of the art is different than mine, or perhaps it’s a more modern, less traditional version.
Regardless I was happy to see more entries in the class.
I had a wonderful time at the show. Even though there are a few processes that can be improved, the organizers made changes to my responsibilities making the experience much less stressful for me. I’m excited to see the show branching out beyond the narrow confines of duck decoys. I found the experience to be very inspirational. So much so, that I have already committed to return next year with a few new carvings to exhibit.
The date of next year’s show has yet to be determined, but will be posted on their website in the spring.