Carving the Bad Ass Raven Mask
It has been a while brewing in the back of my mind to carve a huge raven. Strayed from the traditional, to make it my own. Years in the making. The first months of the project can be viewed on another post.
November 2011 to February 2015
Bad Ass Raven made its way indoors for tweaking
A very loud beak!
A few more tweaks to go, some final surface cuts
2013 October
This is it, started to paint the Bad Ass Raven
2013 November
Black Red and blue paint on the Raven
Bad Ass Raven, open beak
Poor bugger looks fairly battered. Tough life.
Multiple layers of gouache and graphite dust to achieve the Raven’s beak texture
2015 February
Never thought I would end up doing rug-hooking! Tried horse tail hair, yak fur, mountain goat fur. None provided the punky “Bad Ass” style I was looking for. I’ll be playing with that needle and raffia for a few more weeks (months).
Raffia dyed black, with blue and red shades deep within
It took as many hours to do the hair as it did the Raven.
The Bad Ass Raven, as well as other masks, will be on display at the McMillan Arts Center from March 3, 2015 to March 28th. http://mcmillanartscentre.com/march-exhibits-mac/
The Opening Reception is on Saturday, March 7th from 1:00 – 3:30 pm.
Hope to see you there.
Raven mask by Francine Champagne. All done!
Champagne Design — Carver 
superb workmanship, fun story of its creation.
Because I,ve been painting primitive faces, my friends recommended your show to me so I went to the MAC this afternoon to see your work. Absolutely love what you are doing. All the masks had something to say. Congratulations on a wonderful show.
Cheers,
Diane
Thanks Diane. Had a look at your site, nice, thoughtful, tactile artwork!