Ian and Diane Stuart have three nests at their Tucson home. One is the whimsical focal point of their entry courtyard. “It’s the talking point for everyone who arrives,” says Ian. “It’s large—3 feet in diameter,” and rests on a steel structure that is about 8 feet around. Enigmatic and massive, the work causes one to wonder if one of the huge luminescent blue eggs nestled in the coarse, rusted wire might at any moment begin to hatch, he proposes. If that were so, “It would be a dinosaur,” Stuart chuckles. He commends Lichtenhan’s eco-friendly reuse of metal, as well as his talent.

For his part, the artist is enjoying the attention his unique art is generating. So far, he has completed 750 or so pieces. “I love making them,” he says. 

As for their popularity, “I think the nest is almost universal in how people respond to it,” Lichtenhan comments. “It is a lovely metaphor without being saccharine. Like any visual art, the nests affect everybody differently. Poetry is the same way. People bring their own experiences to it.”

Hung on a fence, this 12"-wide wire nest, with its triplet of ceramic eggs, gains a vertical height of 27" with an artistic tangle of metal.

Photo by Jackie Alpers

Photo by Steven Meckler

Three bright-blue eggs add a jolt of color to this 9"-wide wire nest; lengthy elements of wire and banding metal expand the piece to 22" high. The banding metal might once have strapped together railroad ties, plant boxes or pipes.

Ceramic eggs seem to be freshly laid in this 8"-wide wire nest.

Photo by Jackie Alpers

Photo by Steven Meckler

The artist has settled his ceramic eggs and their wire nest into an old 40"-high cast-iron stove bottom.

Here, he uses pliers to “twist-tie” a ceramic egg into a nest.

Photo by Jackie Alpers

Photo by Jackie Alpers

Beyond a nest of blue spotted ceramic eggs, the artist works on a tripod made of found metal materials.

Banding metal and aluminum trim form a receptacle for this wire nest and blue ceramic eggs; the piece measures 34" wide.

Photo by Jackie Alpers