What Remains began with a section of cedar elm that had already been transformed by age and decay. Much of the center was gone, leaving behind a dark, irregular interior and a shell of dense, figured wood.

Rather than fill or disguise that loss, I chose to work around it. The outer surfaces were shaped and finished to reveal the grain and color of the cedar elm, while the interior was left rough and deeply textured. The contrast between the two is the point: one surface refined by hand, the other shaped by time.

The glass top rests above the opening rather than concealing it, allowing the hollow center to remain visible from every angle. What might once have been seen as damage becomes the defining feature of the piece.

What Remains is about endurance—the idea that even after much of something has disappeared, what is left can still have strength, character, and beauty.