Fasces

Fasces

The pencil is the most essential tool in a woodworker’s studio—the first cut made in graphite. My piece nods to Wharton Esherick’s 1929 Desk Figure pencil holder and to the belief that the pen can be mightier than the sword, a claim that feels urgent as arts funding erodes.

I gather pencils as a bundle of sticks—the fasces—a form that once signified civic authority (“strength through unity”) and was later co-opted by extremist governments, giving us the term “fascism.” In my work the bundle is reclaimed: the wood sprouts new vines, leaves, and flowers, symbolizing resilience in human creativity. The image turns from control to cultivation. To redraw the symbol and come together as artists is how we stand up and insist that culture begins with a line anyone can make.