There’s a street on Madison’s east side that’s dotted with large-than-life birds.
A sandhill crane, a red-winged black bird, a pink flamingo. No two are alike — except for a couple of cardinals.
Artist Jo Jensen is behind the eye-catching, wooden replicas. She says what started as a gift for one neighbor, exploded into a painted flock — transforming a stroll down the sidewalk into a birder’s paradise.
“I’d made a large robin because I was yearning for spring. So I put it out in my yard and my neighbor Anita came by and told me that it was her, I believe, spirit animal. So of course I thought, ‘Well, if it means that much to you…’ and I gave it to her,” Jensen said.
This wooden, painted replica of a robin started off artist Jo Jensen’s flurry of painting wooden birds for her neighbors. As of May 2022, she’d crafted more than 50. Jenny Peek/WPR
From there it took off — like a bird in flight.
“Another neighbor said, ‘I would really like you to make me a Redwing Blackbird.’ And then neighbor Julie, across the street, I’ve made several for her,” Jensen said with a laugh. “And from then on it was just one after another.”
Jensen keeps a spiral notebook of all the art projects she’s been commissioned to make — she’s also well known for her pull-tab paper maîche and lottery ticket Mod Podge. But lately the pages of that notebook are filled with the names of birds.
She reads them one by one: “There’s a yellow warbler in there and a titmouse and a Kookaburra, hummingbirds, Goldfinch nuthatch, Indigo bunting. I made my neighbor who has bees a queen bee. Whooping cranes, kingfishers, barn owls, doves, orioles, night herons.”
A wooden red-tailed hawk made by Madison artist Jo Jensen perched on a rooftop. Jenny Peek/WPR
One of Jo Jensen's many painted wooden birds in her east side Madison neighborhood. This lesser goldfinch sits in a yard of shade plants. Jenny Peek/WPR
A wooden red-winged blackbird by Madison Jo Jensen caws as passersby. Jenny Peek/WPR
Artist Jo Jensen's wooden egret stands nearly 4 feet tall. Jenny Peek/WPR
Most of the wooden birds artist Jo Jensen has made are unique, except for a handful of requests for wooden cardinals like this one perched in a tree. Jenny Peek/WPR
This wooden nuthatch, made by artist Jo Jensen, is secured to a mailbox to mimic the bird's tendency to climb up and down trees. Jenny Peek/WPR
Hummingbirds, like the one pictured, are the smallest wooden birds Jo Jensen makes. Jenny Peek/WPR
According to Jensen, the birds range in size depending on the species — hummingbirds are the smallest — but are typically somewhere between 3 and 4 feet tall.
While Jensen has always been a creative, she says crafting wooden fowl was never part of the plan.
“I’ve been making art my entire life. Painting birds? This started last year,” she said. “It was just a fluke, something to do.”
How to make your own feathered friend
Jensen has firmly said she’s not going into mass production, or creating an Etsy shop to sell the birds — it’s a neighbor’s only kind of project. But she did share how to make your own wooden replicas.
Here are the supplies you’ll need:
- Half-inch plywood (handy panels work best)
- Jigsaw
- Clear or white primer
- Acrylic paint
- Waterproof polyurethane
- Garden stake
“It’s fairly simple to do if you have a jigsaw and an eye for drawing,” Jensen said. “I would recommend if it’s going outside that you prime it … I don’t use exterior grade plywood because it splits and it’s wavy, so I try to use what are called handy panels. Then just give it a really good coating of the polyurethane after it’s all painted and dried.”
Madison-based artist Jo Jensen poses in her front yard with a wooden dinosaur she painted. While most of her wooden cutouts are birds, she said birds came from dinosaurs, so why not? Jenny Peek/WPR
“I have no idea how long they’re gonna last outside,” Jensen continued. “Some are posted on those lawn signs people have, little skinny wires, some some are stuck in the ground like that, and others are up on garden stakes.”
Looking at her own yard, Jensen said she hopes the carved creations can be a way for people to express themselves — and have a little fun along the way.
“I think in Wisconsin people have seen the ubiquitous Dutch people bending over showing their bloomers and stuff, the bathtub blessed virgins and things like that,” she said. “So however you want to junk up or beautify your yard, it’s up to you.”
