Below: Courting redhead. This bird is raising his head to utter his courting call. (Photo, Paul J ohnsgard) Bottom: Eider Duck by Harrison Barry, Cross Island, Maine, circa 1900. (Collection of Julie Hall)
Above: High-head redhead by Zeke McDonald. (Collection of Jerry Catana)
In contrast, the alert, nervous redhead caught the imagination of carver Zeke McDonald. When the bird is watchful and looking for danger signals, it formed an image that McDonald translated into his distinctive lollypop headed decoy. Like much folk sculpture, the presence of this bird centers completely in the large oversized head and is trapped and magnified in its intense glass eye. Many carvers were under the impression that a decoy in a sleepy pose would soothe the wild birds into complacency, but for McDonald, the redhead as sentinel was the only bird worth carving. 24
Finally, it is obvious that in the vocabulary of the portrait painter, the singularity of the subject matter was more finalized if a loved toy, book, or favorite chair was incorporated into the composition. This technique assured easier identification of the sitter and made each picture even more personal. The strange and humorous eider duck, for Harrison Barry of Monhegan Island, Maine, was most vividly characterized when it had its favorite food in its mouth. The eider duck is a sea diver, going down in the icy waters off Maine and Nova Scotia to hunt for his food. In order to insure his survival, the eider swallows whole mussels, shell and all. This Barry eider has just detached a large prize off some barnacle covered rock and is preparing to eat his dinner. How much better could Barry have said "eider." Decoys, like portrait paintings, depict the rich variety of life. The folk painters recorded the young and old, male and female, the common and the high-born. Decoy carvers left us their portraits of the stately swan and the humble coot, subtly colored canvasback hens, and dressy pintail drakes. The decoy maker carved his subject courting and playing, feeding and sleeping. Waterfowl carvers have created some of the best "portraits" in the world. Great decoys are imbued with all the personality and form that elevates the best art, be it on canvas, in wood, tin or stone, to the level of the masterpiece. "Seeing" decoys is a challenge. The art in the decoy is elusive, subtle, mysterious, and easily lost in the dialogues that often destroy the art in many functional objects. Nonetheless, the more we look at decoys the more we see that this unique indigenous American art form is worthy of a place beside the great art from other ages and cultures. Our wooden bird portraits are coming into their own.