Woodland Phoenix from the collection of Arts New Orleans

Woodland Phoenix, 1988

Steel and wood

Location: Parks and Parkways Brechtel Park, (3701 Behrman Hwy) 4401 Lennox Boulevard

In July 1988, Madeleine Faust began the first Percent For Art piece, Woodland Phoenix. This sculpture, made of pine and corten steel, was inspired by the abundance of waterfowl and birds in the Brechtel Park area.

Ms. Faust conceived her site-specific, twenty-two foot tall sculpture as a structure loosely based on the carved wooden totem poles made by Northwest Coast American Indians. The materials were chosen because the natural rustic setting seemed to warrant the same feeling in the sculptural piece, and the gracefulness of the bird form blends with the surrounding woodland park nicely.

Woodland Phoenix invites the viewers to create their own stories about this make-believe mythological bird. In recent years the image has been "adopted" by the community as a symbol of its urban rejuvenation.

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About the artist

Madeleine Faust

A native of New Orleans, Madeleine Faust has been working as a professional artist for over 35 years. She received her first large commission while still an undergraduate BFA candidate in Painting, Drawing and Sculpture at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. After graduating with a Master’s Degree from Tulane University in sculpture, she opened a studio and began to pursue a serious career in fine art.

Her studio is 1600 square feet and includes a complete metal shop, wood working area and separate clay area with kilns.

She has exhibited extensively, locally, nationally, and internationally in Hamburg, Germany; Sardinia Greece; and London, England. Her work has been displayed in a number of museums including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; New Orleans Museum of Art; and Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA.

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About the artist

Madeleine Faust