PROMISSORY (pupa)

Over the years, I've encountered various moths or butterfly 'pupae'. In most cases, their gestative journeys seem to have been cut short by perforation from a parasite. The one exception I recalled was the pupa of a Mourning Cloak butterfly whose ominous, spiked carapace aids its survival. Years would pass before I would happen upon a burl that might suggest that particular form, and again it would be years before I started in on the wood with all its wild imperfections. The tentativeness/tenacity of 'going in' with the hope of successfully producing a work that models the pupa's intent and the trepidations and vagaries of life as well.