In Winter, Come to Me

I create some of my carvings because I'm drawn to a particular subject or theme and want to try expressing it with my hands. Other times, I have a vague story or narrative in mind and I try to capture it in a piece. This piece came to me one day this past winter seeing sparrows outside- some were huddled up against the cold- others hopping from branch to grass in search of food. Then I began thinking about a sort of mother sparrow- or a sparrow spirit that would look after the birds and give them comfort in an intagible way. The result is this carving. I experimented a bit with combining a three-dimensional form with low relief carvings on the surface to create another layer of narrative. I'm happy with the initial results and may come back to this device in the future.

The item is carved in boxwood which has been chemically stained and then washed over with the white pigment, gofun. After that, the piece was burnished with an agate to a high gloss. Dimension is roughly 1 3/4" .