Vernal Equibox Art Auction

Lois Keener Ventura, author of Sculpted Band Saw Boxes, is placing
her
one-of-a-kind box
sculpture (pictured on the cover of her book) up for a week-long eBay auction starting November 5. As a bonus, she’s including a signed copy of the book for
the auction winner, and donating a portion of the auction proceeds to medical
research.

We asked Lois what inspired this sculpture
and if it had any connection to her charitable cause choice.

“I had the vision of the
Vernal Equibox
in my mind’s eye for years, but had to wait to find the perfect wood.
When I found the most awesome curly worm-streaked maple, I knew right
away this
was it! I’d never seen anything like it. Plus, a few years earlier,
a stately walnut tree blew down on my grandmother’s property, and she
offered
it to me. I first made some family
heirlooms out of it, but I saved
some beautiful pieces for the Equibox concept. I couldn’t think of a
better way to honor the tree’s life and preserve its natural beauty than to
immortalize it as part of this sculpture. The rich dark walnut made a
perfect contrast and complement to the browns and golds of the figured maple.”

This
award-winning
sculpture is one of the last – and the most elaborate – of Ventura’s tributes
to Nature in wood.

The
Vernal Equibox theme?

“Renewal,”
Lois explains. “The walnut base was shaped and hand carved to
symbolize the ever-turning, wheel of Earth and Nature’s annual cycle. The
solid yet undulating foundation of life. The walnut sapling – resurrected from a toppled walnut tree –
reaches up out of the rich brown Earth, cradling the life-giving Sun (embodied
in the maple mirror) in its branches. The promise of light and life’s
response to it. The two maple box
halves depict abstract plants in phases of germination, breaking free of winter
seed coats, while the streaks drizzling down the maple represent replenishing
spring rains.”

Ventura
is donating a portion of the proceeds from this auction to the Whittemore
Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease (WPI). She tells us why: “They are a light to so many reaching
to break free of a very long winter of darkness. WPI is a small independent research group doing what it
takes to make cutting-edge discoveries that set the stage for accelerated
research into neuro-immune disease on a global scale. They’ve renewed hope for a vastly underserved population of
more than a million severely debilitated people of all ages in the U.S., and at
least 17 million worldwide. This
is personal to me, my family, and to an entire community of patients and
dedicated researchers I’ve had the privilege to get to know over the years.” WPI
is the first multi-faceted center of its kind to benefit patients with ME/CFS
(Myalgic Encephalomyelitis /chronic fatigue syndrome), along with Atypical MS,
Autism, GWI (Gulf War Illness), Fibromyalgia, related cancers and more. “Vernal Equibox is a metaphor
for WPI in many ways,” Lois says.

For
more info about the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease,
see: www.wpinstitute.org

You
can find Ventura’s “Vernal Equibox” auction through the www.ebay.com by entering the auction title “Award
Winning Abstract Wood Band Saw Box Sculpture” in eBay’s search box. (We’ll post a direct link to the item
when the actual URL for the auction is generated.) The auction page will include a photo gallery of the
sculpture and a complete description of the box and processes used in its
creation.

Lois
asked us to thank all Popular Woodworking and band saw box sculpture fans for
their enthusiasm for this organic woodworking style and their support over the
years. “It’s fun reading
about other woodworkers having so much fun!” she says.