Danny Rodgers

wood

Danny Rodgers was born in Florence, Alabama in 1961. In 1962, his parents, along with his two sisters, moved back to their home town of Decatur, Alabama. With the exception of his time in college, Rodgers has lived in Decatur all of his life. He has a BS in Business Administration and a strong love of the outdoors. As a teenager, he learned to deer and turkey hunt on a farm in Fayetteville, Tennessee.

“My sisters and I have always had a love for art. In 1980, I attended a Wildfowl Festival at Calhoun Community College. Wildlife artists from all over the country participated. It was there that I saw for the first time, birds of all sizes being sculpted in wood. After that show, I was determined to learn how to do this. Within the past four years, two things happened in Decatur, that sparked my interest in creating and showing birds again. This was the construction of the Alabama Center for the Arts and the River Clay Festival. Those two events, along with the establishment of the Carnegie Visual Arts Center in 2003, and the Wheeler Refuge Crane Festival every January, bring many art and wildlife lovers to our town.”

Rodgers now lives about half a mile from Wheeler Refuge. He frequently take walks on the Refuge with his dog, Boone. Boone is a Labrador Retriever and loves the Refuge as much as Rodgers does. Every fall, Rodgers gets to watch migrating waterfowl from his backyard as they make their way to Wheeler.

“Every November, the skies will be filled with the Sandhill Cranes, along with a small number of the endangered Whooping Cranes that make Decatur their home every winter. Every artist will encounter an occasional slump and lack of inspiration. One walk on Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge to see what God has created for us provides all the inspiration I need.”