Alder wood, Acrylic paint

“It is New Year’s Day, and Dad mentions seeing a fallen alder tree in the woods by his studio. We hike down to it, about a hundred and fifty steps or so, and cut it into a few pieces with a chainsaw. It is raining pretty hard for added dramatic effect.
We load a few pieces onto a dolly and take turns pulling/pushing the two-hundred-pound load back up the stairs we had come down. This takes an hour. For the second dolly load, we decide to go down the stairs and just push the dolly for a few kilometers on a hilly trail instead.

I had initially intended something quite different for this mask, and I used that idea as a starting point. Part of the process for me these days is allowing for new directions to present themselves, and getting comfortable with letting go and pursuing them. The feathers at this person’s mouth suggest a power of speech. I have been thinking lately that there is more to what we hear and say than the words themselves. There is a feeling, intent, and vibrational energy as well. The feathers here may provide a way to transcend our physiological boundaries and amplify the message further.” – Kyran Yeomans