Mother, 2002
• monashee black marble, onyx & granite
• 40” H x 6” W x 6” D (101cm H x 15cm W x 15cm D)
• private collection, West Vancouver, BC, Canada
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.