Mother, 2002

Sculptor Michael Binkley was inspired to carve “Mother” by the initial shape of the raw piece of marble. The monashee marble shard had a definitive black and charcoal grey veining running in the direction of the elongation. Binkley created a very slim, convex elliptical composition and carved a concave negative space on the top part. This created a stylized image of a robed Madonna, so Binkley added an egg shaped piece of mahogany onyx, mounting it off-centre at the bottom of the concave space to represent a child being held in the arms of its mother.

The sculptor mounted the sculpture on a red granite base. The surface of the black marble is a silky smooth matte finish and Binkley added clear marble wax to deepen the colour and gives the surface the look of a dry bar of soap. The egg has a high gloss finish.

Binkley will often contrast the colour of the subject sculpture and its base, so he chose a lighter coloured granite against the darkness of the subject.