‘Redtail Vs. Rattler’

By-Carter Watkins 2020

seed beads, beeswax, on nylon-string acoustic guitar

This is the second piece of a trio of guitars with a ‘bird-conflict’ theme. On each guitar there is a common Texas bird- Pheasant, Red Tailed Hawk, and Roadrunner. Each guitar depicts an interaction between 2 animals- the bird and its predator or its prey, with complex and detailed landscape elements, climates, and fora.

This guitar was found in an attack by my father-in-law. He gave it to me to use as a canvas. This guitar is the least functional guitar. there is some buzzing on the frets, it does not sound very good.

the art- The inspiration for this pair of creatures came from my daly central-texas life. In the past couple years the Austin Redtail Hawk population has exploded. I see two or three every single day hunting in the creek by my house and sitting on top of the light posts along the MoPac expressway. I love them, they are raptors, they eat meat, they have super vision, they eat rats, they can fly! I wanted to try a more challenging sky-scene for this guitar and i think the sunset and glowing clouds came out wonderfully. The scene depicts the contact/conflict of two predators.