Miniature

Cengi

Persephone

Echo

Why I burn

I feel that woodburning has amazing expressive potential especially for portraiture and subjects that are naturally dramatic. Rather than laying color on a surface, in a woodburning all the shades are wood itself, affected by heat, burnt to varying shades black-brown to near white, subtly traversing all the variations of the color (and grain texture!) that wood is. Usually wood presents a natural spectrum of flesh tones to begin with, and since I have always been inclined to draw faces above all, it was a perfect union of impulse and medium for me. It is wonderful to work with a natural material and to need only the touch of fire to transform it into art. It is both sensuous and elemental!

Why Faces?

The Irish poet John O'Donohue says it most beautifully for me:

"In the human face, the anonymity of the universe becomes intimate. The dream of the winds and the oceans, the silence of the stars and the mountains, reached a mother-presence in the face. The hidden, secret warmth of creation comes to expression here. The face is the icon of the creation." --from Anam Cara

Patience

Radha Krishna

Poetry