This is a work I submitting tomorrow in my art portfolio. I wanted to share images of it and a little blurb here as well. I have never been so involved with a work as this sculpture. I am extremely happy with the result. It is strange to be so moved by your own creation.
Using the root as the head of the sculpture gives them a cerebral effect and personifies the wood. This allows the viewer to transpose human emotion and experience onto the inanimate branches.
Soul Baring
The construction of this piece has a lot to do with the meaning behind it. The larger piece of wood is the root of a birch tree. It was quite labour intensive, as well as time consuming, to extract the tree from the frozen peat moss and clay. Cleaning the delicate roots was an equally involved process. The willow branch that embraces it is cut from the same forest. The act of carefully stripping away the bark to expose the raw wood beneath the willow bark as well as the careful cleaning of the birch root became a very significant element to the work. At one part in the root the red wood exposed from the torn away bark looks as though it is blood stained. When it was initially pulled a small stream of water oozed from this place for several hours and the branch looked as though it was bleeding. 
The piece has a lot of personal symbolism. The sculpture was provoked by extensive though on the subject of romantic relationship. It is inspired by anticipation for my upcoming marriage. It speaks about sharing yourself with another, the vulnerability and exposure involved in this kind of union.
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These branches are distinct from one another but dependant as well. They support one another and cannot stand apart.
The wood is left unglazed or polished because I wanted it to reflect the rawness of relationship.
Marriage is not tidy, organized or smooth. The wood retains a wildness that is essential to the theme of a love partnership. The condition of the wood reflects the title of baring the soul.