ORNITHOR

This work emerges from the fusion of sculpture and painting applied to animal bones recovered from nature, giving them a second life through an artistic process that honours the memory, strength and essence of each animal.

Created on a cow skull, the piece transcends its organic origins to become a totemic sculpture of symbolic and ritualistic character. Its forms, textures, reliefs and chromatic reflections create a world of its own, where the earth, the forest, mineral energy and ancestral memory converge.

The sculpture evokes a fantastical creature, a guardian spirit born from the union of the animal world and the primordial forces of nature. Its skeletal structure, defined by the elongated shape of the skull, is transformed through the incorporation of organic elements and antlers that appear to grow from the material itself, as though the piece were undergoing a metamorphosis between reality and imagination.

The choice of a cow skull lends the work a symbolic dimension associated with fertility, abundance, generosity and a connection to the earth. In numerous cultural traditions, the cow represents the ability to nourish, sustain and give life, as well as the continuity of natural cycles.

Its presence introduces an energy of rootedness and resilience, a quiet strength that does not need to impose itself in order to be felt. The skull preserves the memory of the animal's presence and becomes the foundation for a new sculptural identity.

The transformation of the skull does not seek to conceal its origins, but rather to reveal another dimension of its existence. What was once living matter becomes a symbol, and what seemed to belong solely to the past finds a new form of expression in the present.

The incorporation of deer antlers, integrated into both the rear section and the central element, expands the sculpture's meaning and establishes a direct connection with the spirit of the forest.

Deer antlers are particularly powerful symbols of renewal and transformation because of their natural ability to be shed and grow again. This cycle makes them a representation of regeneration, evolution and the capacity to be reborn after each stage of life.

In symbolic imagery, the deer is also associated with nobility, intuition, alertness and a connection with untamed landscapes. Its antlers evoke branches reaching towards the sky, like trees growing from the earth and connecting the ground with the invisible forces of nature.

In this work, their presence introduces an energy distinct from that of the cow skull. Where the cow embodies rootedness and abundance, the deer brings the impulse of renewal and growth. These two forces complement one another, giving rise to a totemic creature that unites stability and expansion, permanence and change.

The arrangement of the antlers at the rear and within the central element reinforces the impression of a living, evolving structure, as though the sculpture were protected by a crown of natural forms emerging from its own body.

The deep, dark eye sockets heighten the enigmatic character of the skull. These spaces resemble small caves or portals leading into an unknown interior, establishing a symbolic boundary between the visible and the hidden, between presence and absence.

The absence of a gaze thus becomes a space for contemplation. The sculpture seems to look out from another place, like a silent presence that preserves the memory of its origins while simultaneously acquiring a new identity.

The darkness of these cavities contrasts with the opal's lustre, the surface reliefs and the upward-reaching forms of the antlers. This contrast creates a visual tension that reinforces the impression of encountering an object imbued with mystery, situated between the natural world and a fantastical realm.

Composition and Technique

The work is created on a cow skull, transformed through a sculptural and painterly process that respects its original structure while enhancing its distinctive anatomical features.

The surface displays a rich variety of textures, reliefs, irregularities and layers of colour, combining deep blacks, earthy tones, bluish reflections and flashes of violet, copper and gold. The glossy finish intensifies the depth of the colours and creates an iridescent appearance reminiscent of certain minerals and materials shaped by natural processes of transformation.

The deer antlers, incorporated into the rear section and the central element, add volume, verticality and an organic dimension that extends the silhouette of the skull. Their presence contributes to a dynamic composition in which the forms seem to grow, branch out and expand beyond the skeletal structure.

Every component contributes to a one-of-a-kind composition in which animal matter, the forms of the forest and the shifting light of the mineral merge into a single work. The combination of natural elements, painterly treatment and sculptural finish places the piece within an aesthetic realm between the organic, the ritualistic and the fantastical.

This sculpture represents the union of two symbolic forces: the rootedness of the cow and the renewal embodied by the deer.

The cow brings the energy of the earth, abundance and the continuity of life. The deer introduces the impulse of regeneration, intuition and a connection with the wild.

Together, these presences form a totem that invites reflection on the cycles of existence, the capacity for transformation and the profound relationship between living beings and the natural world.

The work does not seek to represent a specific animal, but rather to evoke a symbolic presence: a guardian standing at the threshold between the known and the unknown, between memory and metamorphosis, between the strength of roots and the impulse to grow.

A unique piece for those who see art as a bridge between nature and symbolism, between the ancestral and the contemporary. A totem of strength, renewal and mystery that reminds us that even what appears to have reached its end can find a new way of existing, reveal a different kind of beauty and become the beginning of something extraordinary.