- Donald Featherstone (artist)
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Don Featherstone Birth name Donald Featherstone Born 1935/1936
Leominster, Massachusetts, U.S.Nationality American Field Sculpture Works Plastic flamingo Awards Ig Nobel – Art Prize
1996 Plastic flamingo
[1]Donald "Don" Featherstone is an American artist who is most widely known for his 1957 creation of the Plastic Pink Flamingo while working for Union Products.[2] Currently Featherstone resides in Fitchburg, Massachusetts,[3] where he keeps 57 plastic flamingos on his front lawn.[4] Featherstone and his wife Nancy, have been dressing alike for over 28 years.[3]
Contents
Biography
Featherstone grew up in Berlin, Massachusetts. After graduating from the Worcester Art Museum's art school, in 1957, he was offered a job designing three-dimensional animals for Union Products, Inc.[3] Over his years at Union Products, Featherstone sculpted over 750 different items, the first of which were a girl with a water can and a boy with a dog.[3] When Featherstone was asked to sculpt a duck, he purchased one, which he named Charlie, and later released the bird in Cogshall Park.[3] After carving the duck, still in 1957, he was asked to carve a flamingo. The now iconic pink flamingo went on sale in 1958,[3] when the color pink was popular.[5]
In 1996, Featherstone was awarded the 1996 Ig Nobel Art Prize for his creation of the Pink Flamingo,[1] and he also began his tenure as president of Union Products which he held until he retired in 2000.[4]
Pink Flamingo
A Plastic flamingo as Designed by Don Featherstone
Featherstone based his creation on photographs of flamingos from National Geographic,[5] as he was not able to requisition real flamingos to use as models. As time went on the plastic flamingo became more and more popular. It appeared across the country and even as parts of various art exhibits, and then in 1987, Donald Featherstone inscribed his signature in the original plastic mould.[6] This was apparently to help distinguish between original and "knock-off" Pink Plastic Flamingos.[6] Featherstone's signature stayed on the bird until 2001 when it was removed.[4] The signature was quickly replaced due to a small boycott of the unsigned birds.[4]
On 1 November 2006, Union Products closed, and the Flamingo stopped being produced.[6] Shortly thereafter, a New York company purchased the moulds for Featherstone's flamingos and sub-contracted production to a Fitchburg, Massachusetts company, Cado Products.[7] In 2010, Cado Products (cadocompany.com) purchased the copyrights & plastic molds for the Pink Flamingos and continues to manufacture them. They are generally sold in sets of two—one holding its head erect, nearly 3 feet high, the other bending over as if looking for food.[5]
References
- ^ a b The 1996 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
- ^ Featherstone, D. and Herzing, T., The Original Pink Flamingos: Splendor on the Grass, Schiffer Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0-7643-0963-3
- ^ a b c d e f Beaudoin, Diane (2007). "Pretty in Pink?: Flamingos give color to Leominster". Leominster Champion. http://www.leominsterchamp.com/news/2006/1103/Front_page/002.html. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
- ^ a b c d Collins, Clayton (2006). "Backstory: Extinction of an American icon?". Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1102/p20s01-lihc.html. Retrieved 2008-04-23. Published: November 2, 2006.
- ^ a b c "Original pink flamingo lawn ornament being reborn.". USA Today. 2007. http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-06-01-flamingo_N.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-04. Updated June 1, 2007.
- ^ a b c Price, Jenny (2006-11-17). "In the Pink No More". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/opinion/17price.html. Retrieved 2008-04-23., November 17, 2006
- ^ "Retro pink flamingos to hatch in New York". MSNBC. 2007. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18967357. Retrieved 2008-04-23. Published: May 31, 2007.
External links
Categories:- Plastic arts
- American sculptors
- Ig Nobel Prize winners
- Living people
- 1930s births
- People from Worcester County, Massachusetts
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