Monarch
Monarch was once a birch log I happened upon in the woods of Northern Michigan. The image of a canoe has run through my work for decades, so my initial intent was to carve a canoe out of it. This I did, but wanted to transform it further. Wood is so gorgeous and plastic that seeing what this log could do was evocative. I burned it, carved it, drilled holes in it- in order to make it appear skeletal, yet retain its original form. Then I cut it in half along the spine, opened it up, and the monarch revealed itself.