{"id":24385,"date":"2015-04-22T16:44:26","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T21:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=24385"},"modified":"2015-04-24T23:30:35","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T04:30:35","slug":"local-artist-lowdown-red-byrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/local-artist-lowdown-red-byrd\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Artist Lowdown: “Red Byrd”"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alex Thiel<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Though Double Decker<\/strong> has earned a reputation as an annual highlight of Oxford\u2019s art calendar, some vendors and exhibitions can stretch the definition of \u201cart.\u201d Red Byrd<\/strong> does just this, in a way that seems fun and unforced.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [my grandson] was born, I started to make toys for him. I didn\u2019t know how to make toys. I just started fooling with them because I liked them myself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a little boy, I didn\u2019t have a lot of toys, so I thought maybe I\u2019d try to make some for him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From such unassuming beginnings sprang one of Double Decker\u2019s more unique traditions. Red Byrd has built and sold handmade wooden toys in Oxford even before Double Decker was founded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing it ever since then. [My grandson] is thirty-four years old now, and I got two great-grandsons on top of that. Of course, I\u2019m making toys for them, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Byrd is a retired telephone man and a fifty-nine-year resident of Oxford. He\u2019s the type of guy who, when called for an interview, asks whether or not \u201cit\u2019s going to cost [him] anything.\u201d Still, despite the old-fashioned nature of his craft, it wouldn\u2019t be fair to call his exhibition a relic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows where I am,\u201d he brags. \u201cLittle kids come see me and spend their money. You need to come over in front of Ajax. That\u2019s my spot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He specializes in recreating various vehicles and machines, particularly those models that have faded with time. His first toy was a replica of a Ford Model-T that he owned as a young man. \u201cI sort of remembered what it looked like and tried to make one. It grew from there. I\u2019m eighty-seven years old, so you know how old that thing is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, the toys became more complex and ambitious.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started making airplanes. I sell lots of trains. A train that spells out the name of \u201cRebels.\u201d Even for little kids, too. Names like \u2018John,\u2019 I\u2019ll spell out J-O-H-N, and it\u2019s got a little engine and a caboose on it.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI make a dragline. The derrick goes up and down, turns around. In fact, I don\u2019t even have one now. I\u2019m going to make one before Double Decker. I don\u2019t sell many of them, because they\u2019re so hard to make.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He has been known to branch out of this mold, however, citing bows and arrows as his \u201cbiggest seller.\u201d He\u2019s also made a replica of Noah\u2019s Ark, with an eighteen-inch ship and forty-eight tiny animals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Byrd doesn\u2019t seem to pay any mind to fitting in among the other tents dotting the square. \u201cA lot of the time,\u201d he explains, \u201cpeople say \u2018Are you an artist?\u2019. Well, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m an artist or not, but making wooden toys? You take a flat board, and you wind up making a train or an airplane.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Byrd doesn\u2019t seem to have any bigger aspirations for his woodworking hobby, despite many requests and inquisitions over the years. \u201cI don\u2019t even attempt to make furniture. It\u2019s too complicated, and I\u2019m not that smart anyway.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes a difference when you do something you like to do. I\u2019ve been retired now for twenty-eight years. I don\u2019t have anything else to do with my time, so that\u2019s what I do.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Call it an art, or call it a craft. It\u2019s refreshing, perhaps, to see such an unpretentious exhibition at an arts festival. At any rate, a visit to Byrd\u2019s tent at Double Decker is sure to yield a warm conversation. \u201cI\u2019m a big talker,\u201d he brags.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve found that out, I guess.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alex Thiel Though Double Decker has earned a reputation as an annual highlight of Oxford\u2019s art calendar,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":24389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[318,307,1],"tags":[1051,1178,1265,4272,6422,6460,6453,5,6461,4,6371,6459],"class_list":["post-24385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-double-decker-2012","category-local-people","category-uncategorized","tag-ajax","tag-art-2","tag-craft","tag-double-decker","tag-double-decker-arts-festival","tag-ford-model-t","tag-local-artist-lowdown","tag-mississippi","tag-noahs-ark","tag-oxford","tag-red-byrd","tag-toymaker"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/RedByrd-FEAT.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}