Original artwork description:

This is the Guardian.
The Dog is always correlated to protection and loyalty, and in sciamanic tradition it is often the guardian of the Underworld.
But I want to give you a more secrete and mysterious symbolism of this animal: it rapresents the True and unconditional Love, because only True Love can beat and overcome Death.

This inusual Guardian belongs to a bigger project: ANIMANI (in italian "anima" and "animali" mean "soul" and "animals", and "mani" is for "hands"), correlated to a deep personal research about inconscious, the middle-world between dream and reality, spiritual guides and sciamanism.
Animani are particular animals, linked to our human soul: they have a human hand instead of their head.
I sculpt different animals from different media.

This piece is one of a kind in pine wood.
I sculpted this dog directly in a cutted trunk, so the sculpture has natural cracks. (Generally if you want to sculpt a piece of wood you have to extract his "heart", cutting him in two by the centre).
I wanted to give him an ancient and arcane sense of eternal-time, so I decided to mantain the natural ongoing process... Wood is always alive! ...and what sublime perfume -due to the pine resin- while I was sculpting it!

From ANIMANI here on my page you can find also funny coloured rabbits and a very regal swan.
Enjoy them!

Materials used:

Wood