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Sincerely enamored with nature, Wendy Lichtensteiger has been documenting its offerings since her childhood on Erskine Lake, NJ. By direct observation and through photographs, sketches, and natural found objects, Wendy has developed a sincere respect for the mysterious wonder of plants and animals and the integrated relationship they maintain.

She navigates this respect and her devoted passion for producing and making by "reclaiming what is thought to be waste". Wendy makes her carvings with over one hundred year old wormy chestnut, a once abundant tree that has disappeared from the American Landscape. An appropriate material that in return pays homage to the aviary creatures that once inhabited and perched in them.

Staining the carvings reveals the beauty of the wood's characteristics and the dual feathery grain of the chestnut. The cracks, checks and wormholes testify to the symbiotic relationship of nature and time. Often a favorite piece of driftwood or special branch, which Lichtensteiger considers works of art in their own right, will serve as base for many of her wood carvings.?

After studying Studio Art at Arizona State and moving to the east coast to help open The Wooden Feather folk art gallery, Wendy underwent a six year apprenticeship with her father, himself a woodcarver of over thirty years. Having honed her wood carving skills on the Jersey shore, she has built a woodshop of her own in the wooded mountains of Vermont.
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