The animals I feel connected to
Lately, I’ve been reading quite a lot about the idea of a symbolic or spiritual animal, an animal that somehow represents something within us, our personality, or qualities we feel connected to.
It got me thinking: What would my own animals be?
For me, two stood out immediately.
The panther, representing inner strength, quiet power, and the ability to move forward even when things get difficult.
And the horse, representing freedom, independence, and the feeling of needing space to follow your own path.
So I decided to turn these two symbols into a piece of marquetry.
I wanted the animals to feel connected rather than simply placed next to each other almost like two different sides of the same person.
I made the piece using: Ash, Cherry, Walnut, Maple, Birdseye maple, Padouk, Smoked eucalyptus, Birch burl, Mahogany, Satin walnut
The finished piece is 75 × 75 cm (29.5 × 29.5 inches).
And because the idea fascinated me so much, I ended up creating a little 10-question test based on the same concept to see which symbolic animal might represent someone else.
I’m curious: if you had to choose one animal to represent something deep within you, what would it be and why?