希望的烛光
Candle of Hope
This is 希望, pronounced as 'xi-wang', which means hope. When I first saw this piece of wood, about 5" by 5", I was attracted to its grain, the part that resembles a lit candle. It looks very interesting to me.

When I see the flame on a lit candle, it always reminds me of the hope of life or in life.
So naturally the word 'hope' came
straight to my mind.

I decided to paint the characters golden and copper just to show some metallic or glowing effect which looked as if it was due to the light that shone on them.

I have to say this. The candle, looks almost perfect, with the 'dot' (an eye on the wood) in the flame and the melted wax at its bottom.... oooooh I love it really! :)

I asked some friends to guess what it looked like and they gave me different answers: a pair of scissors, a man standing straight with both arms stretched out upwards, and even ... a genital! God! That was the reason I decided to colour the candle to 'enhance' its look. I also added the luminous part around the flame. Thus, the candle of hope.

About a year later, somehow, I felt that the candle part was too obvious, or too highlighted that people who looked at it no longer could appreciate the beauty of the natural grain of the wood as before. I knew I had to make some changes.

Then I sanded it. I wanted to keep the grain visible so I stained it. And I re-painted the second character, 望, with the colour as the first. Now it doesn't look that artificial anymore.

I did this piece of wood when I was at the downside of my life and during then, I was really hoping for myself that everything would turn out to be okay. I needed encouragement and support from any source I could get. Therefore, when I found this little plaque and saw its grain, I was determined to get it and to carve the word 'Hope' on it. I was pleased when I completed the work. It has special meaning to me.