Eric Tardif

Inspired by nature as well as the Indians of Quebec and Western Canada, I am intrigued by the expressive possibilities of wood. For 15 years I’ve used a non-traditional steam bending technique to arrive at a singular form of expression for the elegant and graceful movement and form of birds.

But the figure is for me only a starting point and it cannot fully communicate my vision without the evocative impressions of abstraction. As a metaphor, sculpting becomes as much a manner of capturing the flight of birds as it is of representing the bird itself. However, through research and development of a technique increasingly refined by the choice of a wood, my work remains in a state of perpetual artistic migration.