Milette Lanphere Ceramic Raptor Head Wall Sculpture, ML '01

A hand-built, hand-painted stoneware wall sculpture depicting a stylized raptor head — almost certainly a falcon — rendered in bold graphic form in dark gray clay with vivid red glaze filling deeply carved geometric fields. The face is organized around two large, commanding eye sockets: red-glazed surrounds framing unglazed oval pupils that give the piece an alert, unnerving intensity. A crown of sharp triangular spikes runs along the top of the rounded head, each point glazed in red against the dark clay. The hooked beak is prominently modeled, the feathering of the throat incised in clean parallel lines. Small wing-like projections extend to either side. The piece is hollow and designed for wall mounting.

This is not a generalized bird. The anatomy of the hooked beak, the proportions of the skull, the treatment of the eye — these are the observations of someone who had spent years in the company of raptors at close range.

The reverse bears the artist's "ML" cipher alongside the inscription "2001," dating the work to a period when Lanphere was still an active licensed falconer.

CONDITION

Good. No damage noted. The red glaze remains vivid throughout and the "ML 2001" mark on the reverse is clearly legible. Minor surface wear consistent with age. Please refer to all provided photographs for a complete visual assessment.

DIMENSIONS

Overall: 8" H × 8" W × 5" D. Wall mountable.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Milette Lanphere has spent most of her life in the Mesilla Valley of southern New Mexico, on a seven-acre farm outside Las Cruces — home over the years to horses, donkeys, dogs, chickens, cats, and all manner of wildlife that found its way to her door. For years she was also a licensed falconer, one of fewer than thirty active practitioners in the state of New Mexico, before setting that chapter aside around 2005.

What falconry gives you, above all else, is an education in anatomy. You learn how a creature is built — how it moves, where the weight sits, what the face does under stress. That knowledge does not leave you. It shows up in the clay.

This sculpture was made in 2001 — at the height of her falconry years. The raptor rendered here is anatomically truthful in the way that only comes from years of close, patient observation — not only studied from reference, but known from life. Of all the animals Lanphere has made in clay, this one is the most personal.

In her past lives, Lanphere was a member of the Mesilla Valley Fine Arts Gallery in historic Mesilla and the Potters' Guild of Las Cruces, through which she participated in the Guild's acclaimed Fire & Fiber biennial — a collaborative exhibition pairing ceramic artists with fiber and mixed media practitioners, staged at the Branigan Cultural Center and subsequently traveled to the Deming Art Center. Her collaborator in that show was Suzanne Kane, a Las Cruces-based sculptor whose work is held in the permanent collections of the New Mexico State Capitol, the Archie Bray Foundation, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and the Las Cruces Museum of Fine Arts, among others. That Lanphere was paired with Kane speaks well of the regard in which her work was held within the Las Cruces arts community.