Cedar Mama

I've discovered I love carving wood. It's time consuming and can be hard on your hands, back and shoulders but I love the results. I could seriously see myself doing more of this is I weren't already in love with painting. Or if I were twenty years younger. Sculpture is tough on the old folks. This piece is called The Beginnings of Unconditional Love and was made for my beginning sculpture class. It's only about 8 inches tall and made of a solid chunk of cedar from a tree that Pop had to cut down. (Shout out to Pop for always keeping an eye out for tree trunks that want to be art in their after-life) The design came from a scribble drawing I made for an online art course a few years ago. You close your eyes and scribble on a piece of paper then look at it for awhile until a design emerges. This is what I saw in the scribbles.

It's a little silly I guess, but I have just always loved this little shape. I've had it in the back of my mind for awhile and have wanted to carve it for more than a year. So when I needed to start a new project, I found my chunk of cedar and hauled it to the wood shop at school.

I set about removing corners and extra bits with a band saw; a reductive process. I almost left it like this, cause it's so texture-y and awesome, but I stuck to the vision and ground and chiseled her down and then sanded and sanded and sanded till she was smooooooth. I'm pleased. Little mama, little one...