Elephant Of Light

Some ideas arrive quietly. This one arrived as an inner nagging — a persistent feeling that I needed to carve an elephant with light glowing from within.

I had recently been on a retreat, doing a lot of personal inner work. Going away and looking within yourself has a way of bringing things to the surface. I think that's where this sculpture came from. The idea of light from the inside wasn't just a design concept — it felt like something I needed to express.

The carving process was intricate and demanding. The decorative lattice work on the body had to be carved carefully enough to let light pass through without weakening the stone. Every element — the detail on the collar, the patterns, the trunk, the expression — was carved by hand from Oamaru stone.

When it was finished and lit from within at night, it was everything I had imagined. The Shed magazine featured it in Issue 75, Nov-Dec 2017, and wrote a full article about my work and the projects I had taken on over the years.

In early 2021, it was stolen from my home. I still don't know where it is. If you ever come across it, please contact the New Zealand police.

It was one of those pieces that came from deep within. In more ways than one.