Mother and Child

Shona Nunan

1991

Huon Pine wood

collection of the artist

I carved ‘Mother and Child’ in beautiful Huon Pine from Tasmania. A load of the very rare Huon Pine arrived at our local hardware. It was intended to be purchased by crafts people. I couldn’t bear the wood to be cut up into smaller pieces, so I bought the lot. It was amazing wood to carve, but in the end I was poisoned by the dust – I rarely wore a mask, and I ended up selling half the allotment back to the hardware. This is in my collection because it is significant of a period in my life where as a young mother I was trying to balance being a mother and being an artist.  I think sometimes having children is ‘heavy’, beautiful as it is. I have kept as many of my wood carvings as possible, some were sold, but because I no longer carve wood, I love having these pieces around.