Ashes to Lotus

Ashes to Lotus

23.5” x 15.25”

Black Walnut • Spalted Hackberry • Rainbow Poplar • Aspen

This piece consumed me for weeks. What started as a simple sketch grew into something so much more as I cut, carved and shaped each curve by hand. A skeletal hand offering a lotus — bone and bloom, shadow and light.

Every element was cut on my scroll saw: 

• the black walnut oval frame and painted backer,

• the spalted hackberry skeleton hand, alive with natural character,

• the rainbow poplar stem and the aspen lotus flower.

This isn’t “spooky decor.” It’s a meditation on contrast — decay and beauty, endings and renewal. The kind of depth you’ll never find in a store aisle. Each bone, each petal, each shadow took hours of shaping, sanding, and care to uncover. No two pieces of wood are ever the same, which means Ashes to Lotus is truly one of a kind.

Signed on the back, ready to hang, and ready to bloom in her forever home.