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3ft x 4ft - wood burning on birch canvas - stained with olive oil and coffee

This was a passion project done out of appreciation for the brand i work for. This statue, better known of as the “Winged Victory of Samonthrace” or the Nike statue, is a symbol for our company. Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, and this statue which sits in the Louvre is one of the oldest known representations.

This project took me over a week to complete in total, with the outline taking the longest - almost 4 days. I first sketched the outline with pencil, then used a heating tool to slowly burn the outline into the wood, applying more pressure and time to make darker, thicker lines.

I first used olive oil to stain the shadowed areas, then decided that without 3 color tones (the light background, the medium base, and the dark shadow) that it lacked depth. So i applied olive oil to the entire base, and used a concentrated coffee base to stain the darker shaded areas.

As stated before, this was a labor of love and appreciation for the brand i work for, Nike. I did this project during the corona quarantine - a time during which the brand paid all employees continuously. When so many family members and friends were losing their jobs due to the economic shutdown, the brand stood by all 70,000 of its employees. This inspired me to create this piece in tribute - Victory through Perseverance.