November is waterfowl month on the Eastern Shore. In acknowledgment, beginning November 1, a display of about one dozen antique, wooden Canada Goose decoys will appear in the windows of the Oxford Museum. These decoys were made for hunting by talented hunters, bay men and guides from 1865 to 1965 along coastal Virginia, New Jersey and Long Island. For contrast, a contemporary “decorative” pair will be displayed alongside the antiques.
Entitled simply “Water Sculpture,” the display of the decoys against a plain background is designed to allow full appreciation of how these ‘working decoys’ became an inspired art form. Exhibit curator Larry Myers’ intent is to present “the humble decoy” as pure visual art – a timeless sculpture unencumbered by other hunting artifacts or complicated
explanations of regional styles and construction techniques. “My goal here is to let the sculptures speak for themselves,
allowing each person to relate directly and emotionally to what each maker had in mind and achieved.” “The impact,” he adds, “is magnified by the full size of the geese, which are rarely displayed as a group because of space constraints. This is an unusual exhibit that smacks you right in the kisser.”
A veteran collector, Myers explains that the trend for the last forty years has been for displays of increasing complexity, 
emphasizing the many different environmental, cultural, and economic factors that influenced this quintessential American folk art. “While it is true,” he says, “that like all folk art, decoys were made for a practical purpose, luring waterfowl within shooting range, it is not true that their makers were unmindful of the beauty of the waterfowl themselves or of their skill in capturing the essence of the birds in wood. The best makers were self-taught artists who were endlessly experimenting with the addition and subtraction of detail to achieve the right balance, like all artists, between spirit and reality. That they did this so often with scrap wood and hand tools does not diminish the lofty goal of their ‘call to the sky.’ Each of these creations is a personal statement, and we can approach them unashamedly on that aesthetic basis.”
The exhibit will remain up until November 13, 2011
open Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays 10-4 and Sundays 1-4
100 S. Morris Street, PO Box 131, Oxford, MD 21654 410-226-0191
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