DATE: Sunday, November 23, 1997             TAG: 9711230059

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY PAM LOWNEY, CORRESPONDENT

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   91 lines

DROP IN TO SEE THESE DECOYS RECEPTION TODAY KICKS OFF 36-PIECE SHOW AND LECTURE SERIES.

Fittingly, baked Canada goose is on the menu for today's debut of the new decoy exhibit at Museum of the Albemarle.

An opening reception for ``Working Birds: Decoys and Their Carvers'' is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. at the museum, 1116 U.S. 17 South. Exhibit builder and cooking enthusiast Wayne Mathews will prepare ``Tastes from the Wild Side,'' featuring baked goose, smoked rockfish and venison prepared several ways, including hot and spicy.

``That's for the really wild people,'' Mathews said.

``It will be like the Dave Thomas commercial for Wendy's,'' said Education Coordinator Brenda O'Neal.

The museum's gift shop will host a Christmas open house the same time as the reception. The public is welcome to both the free events.

The 36-piece decoy exhibit is on loan from the collection of Neal Conoley Jr. at the Currituck Wildlife Museum at the Whalehead Club in Corolla. It features figures by renowned Albemarle carvers Ned Burgess, Percy Carawan, Joe Hayman, Mannie Haywood, Wallace O'Neal, father and son Ellie and Blanton Saunders, Wilton Walker, and Alvirah Wright.

``Their decoys are collected throughout the world,'' said exhibit designer Don Pendergraft.

Conoley, author of ``Waterfowl Heritage: North Carolina Decoys and Gunning Lore,'' was invited to attend the reception. He'll also speak in a lecture series that will run concurrent with the show, scheduled through July 19.

O'Neal, curator of the exhibit, and Pendergraft said the exhibit highlights both the talents of the craftsmen and a way of life throughout the region in the first half of the 20th century.

The decoys have a plain, rustic appearance because they were thought of as tools. They weren't collected as works of art until well into the second half of the 1900s. So, for example, most of them don't have eyes.

``Carvers figured by the time live birds got close enough to see the eyes, hunters should have them in their sights,'' O'Neal said. ``Generally, if they added eyes, they just used a dab of paint or a tack.''

The same thinking prevailed when their makers painted the birds. Most have block patterns resembling the coloring of their live counterparts, but not the feather detail. The wooden ones also have rough surfaces because paint on a smooth surface would reflect the sun and make the figures less lifelike.

``Decoys are carved for people now. They don't attract birds, they attract people,'' Pendergraft said.

Carvers also learned to use materials at hand. A couple of decoys have metal bills. One has a head made of a fragment from a chair. Canvas-covered decoys evolved because wooden ones were too heavy for guides transporting hundreds at a time.

``These are just good examples of how innovative the carvers were,'' Pendergraft said. ``They didn't have an ACE Hardware around the corner.''

``They knew how to make do, make a repair and keep on going,'' O'Neal said. She pointed out a canvas-back duck whose head had been reattached with a metal plate.

Other interesting pieces on display include a bufflehead drake dating to 1890; a feeder, or tip up, Canada goose - which is simply a back end pointed upward to suggest a real bird mostly underwater; and a cutaway of a canvas-covered goose that reveals its wooden base and metal frame.

There also are several root-heads. Carvers searched for cedar, gum or cypress roots that already suggested the shape of a head, then refined them and affixed them to the bodies.

The craftsmen prized tree roots because they were almost impossible to break or crack.

Finally, many of the birds' silhouettes resemble boats of the region.

``There weren't a lot of professions to latch onto,'' Pendergraft said. ``Most of the decoy carvers were boat builders, too.''

O'Neal's husband, Wallace O'Neal IV, will demonstrate the crafting of a canvas-covered decoy on a family night scheduled for Friday, Jan. 23, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the museum.

Also on family night, participants will hear world champion goose callers and enjoy hands-on activities.

The lecture series schedule is to be announced.

In addition to Conoley, speakers will be author Archie Johnson and Currituck County historian Barbara Snowden.

Johnson wrote ``Canvas Decoys of North America'' and co-wrote ``Gun Clubs and Decoys of Back Bay and Currituck Sound.'' Snowden is a member of the Wildlife Preservation Trust, a fund-raising group for the Currituck Wildlife Museum. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Wayne Mathews helped construct the museum's decoy exhibit. Those of

his duck creations that are edible will be part of the opening

reception.

Graphic

SHOPPING OPPORTUNITY

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

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