Entry Details

"Tormento del Viento"
7 1/2" tall x 4" wide, sycamore. Turned, carved, bleached (3 times), sanding sealer and 2 coat lacquer finish buffed to a satin sheen. I used sycamore for it's inherent white color as the piece was to be bleached to as white as possible.
This piece was made to be a background piece in a independent film a friend is shooting.
The name literally translates to torment of the wind, but is also a phrase translated to Thoughts that Torment me. The scene in the movie is a very intimate (non-sexually) and emotional one where essentially a man is with the woman he has recently fallen in love with in her last moments. My initial thought was a piece that celebrated the "happiness" of the moment as they are together, just being in this place but then during the carving stages I realized the duality of the moment, he's in love and happy to be able to be with her in these moments, but at the same time he must be in torment over the knowledge that he will lose her in this life when the moment ends. The thorns represent his torment, twisted and entwined with his happiness, fighting in duality while the soft white exterior represents the purity and innocence of the moment they are sharing.

This is my second multi-layer carved piece and my first where I attempted to show more than 2 layers. The piece was turned to approx. 3/8" thick and then carved with a Turbo-carver II. Creation time was about 42 hours. I went with a low satin sheen on the piece to lower the highlights and help preserve the shadow effects that I discovered are so important in a layered piece. I tried a few new techniques with this one, one of which was different orientations of the carvings, like trying to create a curl/spiral and a few twisted ribbons.

Tomento del Viento, alternate view.