“So real it looks alive!” is the best way to describe Dan McQuestion’s sculptures.  The first time I viewed his art I assumed he was a taxidermist as each piece in the gallery appeared so real and in perfect dimension to a live bird existing in the wild. I was surprised to find they were sculptures created out of aluminum!

As you will see from viewing his sculptures below, he has a talent few have in the world today. Using a metal sculpture technique he invented, Daniel has currently sculpted birds representing over 250 species from six continents…all life size. His accomplishments include rare birds such as the Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and a mated pair of Juan Fernandez Fire-crowned Hummingbirds with a full compliment of individually cut feathers.

It was a natural evolution for Daniel to take a creative leap back in time and apply his artistic genius to the creation of feathered dinosaurs… the ancestors of birds. His newest sculpture is a life size re-creation of a feathered dinosaur, the Deinonychus. Pronounced (die-non-i-kuss).

The Deinonchus and the Toodon (created last year) were two ancient dinosaurs known to have feathers.  Like his anatomically perfect bird creations these two creatures appear as real as if they were alive today.

This new Deinonchus creation can now be seen at the Tucson Convention Center. His Troodon dinosaur was exhibited at the TCC Gem and Mineral Show last year to overwhelming appreciation.

Daniel is not only a self taught ornithologist and an artist, he is also an inventor and a pioneer. When he tried aluminum as an art medium, it was like Columbus’ discovering the New World and in his heart he knew he had found his answer to create his passion.

After years of experimenting he developed a technique that exactly fits the purpose he originally intended. If you look closely at his birds you will see that each feather is hand cut and created to look exactly like the natural creature.

His sculptures are in museums and private collections around the world, including the National Park Service and Saudi Arabian Prince collections. Daniel’s ultimate goal is to have a museum of his own housing a large collection of his artwork. Since many of the creations he has sculpted are now extinct this would be a great venue to educate children and adults.

I highly recommend you view his latest artwork at the Tucson Convention Center (located in the lobby) and know you will not be disappointed. This  portion of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show at the Tucson Convention Center opens Thursday February 11-13 (10am-6pm) and closes February 14(10am-5pm).

Some of his other sculptures can be seen at The Tucson Sculpture Fest 2010 located at the Sculpture Resource Center February 6-13 (10am-6pm).
640 N. Stone Ave., Tucson, Arizona 85705

More photos and information can be found at his website < http://www.dmcquestion.com> and he can be contacted at: daniel@mcquestion.com

Article copyright Charles Spillar 2010

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 12:38 pm and is filed under arts, Tucson Art. Tags for this post: arts, Bald Eagles, Dan McQuestion, Deinonychus, dinosaurs, Gem & Mineral Show, Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers, ornithologist, Red-Tailed hawks, sculpture, Toodon, Tucosn Convention Center, tucson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.