This totemic piece was created from a single carved Douglas Fir board.
The original wood was harvested after the Tillamook Burn east of
Cannon Beach in the mid-20 th century. The salvaged wood was
recycled into the Laughlin Dairy Barn near Yamhill, OR. That barn, in
turn, was taken down and the wood used to build the tasting room for
Saffron Fields Vineyard and several of the iconic art installations in and
around that building, including my own. This particular piece draws
inspiration from ancestral folk carvings from my grandparent’s native
Lithuania as well as spiritual work encountered during my residence in
Africa. It also pays homage to the native peoples on whose land the

original old-growth tree grew. The techniques were introduced to me by
celebrated French sculptural carver Benoit Averly during the 2023 New
Zealand International Art Collaboration.