This piece represents the idea of being overseen and protected. In a world where so much value seems placed on the shiny and the new, true beauty awaits those who care to explore beneath the surface of existing materials such as discarded and weathered timber, with its physical and embodied history. My work is driven by my love of the character and potential contained within timber that has been “distressed” by age and the elements. I endeavor to enter into a “conversation” with the material I work with, a conversation that changes us both, and that seeks to reflect the sentiments expressed by art critic Gene Baro, who in his interpretation of Henry Moore’s work states: “The act of finding a form in a form, without violating the character of the material, requires a profound sense of relationship, but also a refining intelligence, for to work in this way is to finish something partially given.”