Dolphin

Black Acacia, Woodside, CA

24” tall

This wood was collected from my favorite arborist dump in the Bay Area of Northern California. The tree had been large and mostly decayed except for a thin shell and some branches. The arborist simply cut it into 2-foot chunks, several of which had interesting shapes. I normally start by stripping off the decayed wood and much of the bark to find the areas of sound wood with which to sculpt. In this case, I also removed a lot of the sapwood, which is creamy colored, to expose the rich brown heartwood. At the edge of where a branch had been cut, there was a “pocket” filled with sapwood, and it looked just like an "eye." This sculpture had just been created. The rest was minor shaping to produce a more integrated shape.

I thought the sculpture looked like a bird, maybe a penguin or a dolphin. I chose the latter.