Love Letters and Opened Love Letters
I have made several versions of the original 'Love Letters' which were sold in 1995 in New York. I rate the series as one of the most important of my career. There are two examples here: on the left is a smaller version of the original which was made from boxwood and approximately 2/3 larger; on the right is the last incarnation.The subject matter is a story concerning a bundle of letters carefully tied up with ribbon and kept I imagine by a woman - for few men would preserve them in this way. I think for some reason the relationship has been over for a while but the memory of it is still strong. Perhaps the woman is forced to prove that she no longer cares for the writer and against her will she consigns the letters to the fire. This she does but, watching the flames catch the paper, she is able to bear it no longer and plunges her hand in to retrieve them, whatever the consequences. The idea is so universal; things that touch us so deeply are impossible to erase. I have seen this carving affect people deeply, even a hard - bitten New York cop (one of the ones who was guarding the exhibits at the NY '95 convention, I kid you not!) actually had tears in her eyes. She had been quite deprecating about the exhibits until then, but changed her mind.