For this piece, as with my other art this year, I have adopted the theme of “shadowy emergence”. My medium for shadow is black ebony. My idea is to see light emanating from a sharp, but shadowy form. I carved a block of black featureless ebony into a dragon fly (and a fly), then blended them in to a forest of “diamonds”.

My interest in dragonflies was enlightened last year while sitting ina forest of diamond willow. When a dragonfly landed on my hand, it paused for a full minute allowing me to study it, then it pursued a fly through a willow canopy. Curious, I learned that a dragonfly is a symbol of change, speed and illusion, of purity and good luck. (There are black ebony jewel-wing dragonflies in BC.) I imagined melding that shadowy form into the diamonds of the willows. I started by extracting, then carving the most exquisite of forms, the diamonds, to create a diamond forest on a poplar burl.

Then I carved the shadows, from ebony. From what I can tell, this sculpture is unique. I have found no other sculpture of diamonds lifted from willow; no hand carved ebony dragonflies anywhere. So I am pleased.