The Keats Series 2004-2019
Keats #1: In Some Melodious Plot
Gold, 50 bird feathers [including feathers of macaw, amazon, eclectus, African Grey, conure, budgerigar, rose-breasted cockatoo, golden pheasant, grass parakeet, peacock, jungle fowl, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
2 ⅝ x 3 ¼ x 2 ¼ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #2: Tender Is the Night
Gold, 35 Bird Feathers [including feathers of green-winged macaw, hyacinth macaw, tragopan, eclectus, amazon, blue-streaked lory, bantam, araucana, grass parakeet, budgerigar, cockatiel, cockatoo, peacock, guinea hen and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
1 ¾ x 4 ¼ x 4 ½ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #3: Darkling I Listen
Gold, 56 bird feathers [including feathers of peacock, Hamburg, grass parakeet, amazon, guinea hen, lovebird, budgerigar, jungle fowl, hyacinth macaw, blue and gold macaw, green-winged macaw, rose-breasted cockatoo, Moluccan cockatoo, cockatiel, eclectus, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
2 ¾ x 4 ¼ x 4 ½ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #4: Emperor and Clown
Gold, 34 bird feathers [including feathers of Moluccan cockatoo, budgerigar, lovebird, macaw, peacock, African grey, eclectus, silver seabright, flamingo, bantam, conure, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
2 ¾ x 4 3/8 x 4 ½ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #5: Sad Heart of Ruth
Gold, 28 bird feathers [including feathers of African grey, macaw, budgerigar, peacock, hamburg, lovebird, amazon, silver seabright, pionysis, grass parakeet, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
5 x 4 ½ x 4 ½ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #6: Light-Winged Dryad
Gold, 69 bird feathers [including feathers of flamingo, rose-breasted cockatoo, eclectus, hyacinth macaw, green-winged macaw, budgerigar, grass parakeet, peacock, guinea hen, amazon, cockatiel, lovebird, pheasant, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
2 ½ x 4 ¼ x 4 ¼ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #7: Full-Throated Ease
Gold, 77 bird feathers [including peacock, guinea hen, jungle fowl, amazon, African grey, green-winged macaw, blue & gold macaw, hyacinth macaw, rose-breasted cockatoo, lovebird, budgerigar, grass parakeet, eclectus, Cornish bantam, Lady Amherst pheasant, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
3 x 4 ½ x 4 ½ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #8: Beechen Green and Shadows Numberless
Gold, 56 Bird Feathers [including feathers of amazon, wild turkey, Lady Amherst Pheasant, green peacock, blue peacock, budgerigar, grass parakeet, pionysis, eclectus, lovebird, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
4 x 4 ½ x 5 inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #9: The Very Word Is Like a Bell
Gold, 69 Bird Feathers [including feathers of African grey, budgerigar, amazon, hyacinth macaw, sulfur-crested cockatoo, Moluccan cockatoo, macaw, peacock, eclectic, pionysis, grass parakeet, Rosella, conure, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
4 ¾ x 4 ¼ x 4 ½ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #10: Past the Near Meadows, Over the Still Stream
Gold, 353 bird feathers [including budgerigar, grass parakeet, macaw, conure, blue-streaked lory, amazon, eclectus, and African grey parrots, jungle fowl, rose-breasted cockatoo, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
1 ½ x 4 x 4 inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #11: Already With Thee!
Gold, 100 bird feathers [including lovebird, African grey, macaw, peacock, budgerigar, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
3 x 4 ½ x 4 inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #12: The Murmurous Haunt of Flies on Summer Eves
Gold, 99 Bird Feathers [including African Gray, eclectus, macaw, amazon, grass parakeet, budgerigar, lovebird, rose-breasted cockatoo, cockatiel, flamingo, Guinea Hen, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
3 x 4 ½ x 4 ½ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #13: Thou Wast Not Born for Death, Immortal Bird!
24k Gold, 33 gifts of bird feathers [including orange-winged amazon, scarlet macaw, green-winged macaw, hyacinth macaw, African grey, Moluccan cockatoo, yellow crested cockatoo, lovebird, budgerigar, peacock, ocellated turkey, and other birds], water-gilded cherry wood [wood, chalk, rabbit skin glue, bole, and water], poetry, and music.
6 ¼ x 4 ¼ x 5 ½ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #13: Thou Wast Not Born for Death, Immortal Bird
Reverse view
Keats #14: For I Will Fly to Thee
Gold, 38 Bird Feathers [including Blue & Yellow Macaw, lovebird, barred chicken, Guinea Hen, cockatoo, cockatiel, ring-necked pheasant, grass parakeet, ocellated turkey, Golden Pheasant, Grey Peacock Pheasant, and other birds], Water-Gilded Wood.
22 ½ x 7 ½ x 8 inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Keats #14: For I Will Fly to Thee
Side View
Keats #14: For I Will Fly to Thee
Detail, Front View
Keats #15: In Such an Extacy!
24k Gold, 54 gifts of bird feathers [including African Grey, Macaw, eclectus, hamburg, amazon, moluccan cockatoo, hawk-headed parrot, and other birds], water-gilded cherry wood [wood, chalk, rabbit skin glue, bole, and water], poetry, and music [mostly Brahms].
3 ½ x 4 ¾ x 4 ½ inches
Poetry: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
Music: Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 4.
Keats #15: In Such an Extacy!
Reverse view
Keats #15: In Such an Extacy!
Detail view
process
Making of the Keats Series
Studio view of all the parts in the making of Keats #10, Past the near meadows, over the still stream: notebook, 365 feathers, gold working draft, and final parchment.
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Making of the Keats Series
Detail view of the elements in the making of Keats #10, Past the near meadows, over the still stream
Making of the Keats Series
Detail, working base, Keats #10, Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
writings on work
The Keats Series, is a set of 15 works, over 15 years, about 1155 feathers, much gold, the music of Brahms, and a single poem: John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, written in 1819. I began what became the Keats Series in the year after a serious car accident, as a celebration of my return to my studio, and all that meant. I sensed before I had made the first piece that the Ode to a Nightingale contained it all: beauty and mortality, dream and possibility, and the rapture and urgency of art. Reading it over and over, I realized that it was as much about the poet writing the poem as the bird and its own song. In some melodious plot became the first of the series, from the description of the unseen spot in the trees from which the nightingale sings in darkness, pouring forth [its] soul abroad/ In such an ecstasy!/