This carving represents a figure with his head in his hands, bowed over into a sort of spiral. The hands could also represent a child reaching up for its parent, and the arched figure is bending over the child. It is a combination of despair and tenderness.

The carving fought me every step of the way. The wood - American Cherry - proved very difficult to work. From sawing to sanding, it was a struggle, always seeming to be made difficult by the direction of the grain. The curving spiral nature of the piece meant that I had to cut from every angle, with much of it being hard to reach. It almost seemed like the wood wanted me to fail - hard to cut in the direction I wanted, easy to cut in the direction that would ruin it. At one point I actually shouted at it, "What do you want from me?!"

I have never come so close to giving up on a piece before. It seems appropriate for the subject - the times when everything seems to be hard work; life an endless struggle that presses down and crushes you. That which is precious is still at the heart of it however; still worth protecting, still worth working at. I did finish the piece after all.