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Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
An owl stares out from a round of spalted cottonwood, its wide eyes centered within the wood's natural shape. The spalting lines running through the surface become part of the feather pattern, blurring the line between what was burned and what the wood brought to the piece on its own.
The compact scale required a different kind of precision. Every detail of the face, from the concentric rings around each eye to the layered plumage beneath the beak, had to hold at close range. The bark edge remains intact around the full circumference, framing the subject the way the wood grew rather than the way a saw would cut it.
An owl stares out from a round of spalted cottonwood, its wide eyes centered within the wood's natural shape. The spalting lines running through the surface become part of the feather pattern, blurring the line between what was burned and what the wood brought to the piece on its own.
The compact scale required a different kind of precision. Every detail of the face, from the concentric rings around each eye to the layered plumage beneath the beak, had to hold at close range. The bark edge remains intact around the full circumference, framing the subject the way the wood grew rather than the way a saw would cut it.