Nature Done Wright

This 1977 sculpture proved to be a modern-day mystery with a twist.

My latest column is about an unusual raptor sculpture and the man behind it.

You can read it here:

School library should display 'Eagle' Sculpture

By Jim Wright

Special to The Record | USA TODAY NETWORK – NEW JERSEY

   Because I write this column, I get frequent requests to identify a hawk or songbird. 

   The most-challenging recent one wasn’t an actual bird. It was an old bronze statue of a raptor. 

   A school library in Westchester was unsure of what to do with the large sculpture, which sat on a table in an alcove. My sister-in-law works at the school and sensed the statue was significant. She needed ammunition to persuade the library to keep it and display it. Could I help?

   Alas, both bird and sculptor were above my pay grade. When I posted a photo of the statue on Facebook and my nature blog, two readers responded immediately. North Jerseyans know their stuff. 

   They said the statue, entitled “Eagle and Fish,” was created by Michael Naranjo.

   The more I looked at photos of the statue, the more impressed I became. Although the statue seemed a bit impressionistic and not quite eagle-like, I admired the sense of motion and gracefulness in the raptor’s elongated wings. 

   A little research explained why. Naranjo, a Native American from New Mexico,

Michael Naranjo

has been blind for most of his adult life. While Naranjo was serving in the Army in Vietnam in 1968, barely survived a grenade blast that took his eyesight and the use of his right hand. As part of his recuperation, he started sculpting with his left hand. 

    Now age 78, Naranjo says he developed an interest in art as a child. “Around the age of 10, I used to look in gallery windows as I walked through town in Taos,” he said in a recent phone interview. “That got me started.”

   He created “Eagle and Fish” in 1977 in a limited edition of 12, and then destroyed the mold. The bronze, which sold out in 1999, is currently valued at $15,000.

   “Eagles are just so beautiful,” he says. “I love the way they fly and catch the wind. I don’t have pictures or photographs to go by, so everything is from memory, from my mind’s eye.”

   Over the years, Naranjo has received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the National Press Club and other honors. His work is included in collections in the White House, the Vatican, and many museums.

   Last year, the Rockwell Museum in Corning, N.Y., exhibited 30 of Naranjo’s sculptures. One of Naranjo’s conditions was that visitors be encouraged to touch the sculptures so they could engage with them the same way he does. The show, appropriately,  was called “Please Touch!”

   I hope this column nudges the library to not only touch Naranjo’s “Eagle and Fish” and hold onto it but also to display it prominently. The sculpture is so valuable in so many ways. 

    As with real birds, there’s more to this eagle than meets the eye.

The Bird Watcher column appears every other Thursday. Jim’s next book, "The Screech Owl Companion," will be published by Timber Press in October. Email Jim at celeryfarm@gmail.com.