Mountains I Can’t Climb
$2,500.00
Artist: Luca Jesse Apel
Medium: Carving in Elm, Epoxy Clay, Nails, and Copper Wire
Artist Statement:
I have always been a wanderer, a nomad; I connect with the land through exploration and feel most myself when out in nature. “Mountains I Can’t Climb” speaks to the conflict between my heart, which lies in the woods, and my body, which is suffering the consequences of joint hypermobility. It depicts my left knee, which in 2023 deteriorated to the point of needing a cane. I have carved the bones from a particularly knotty piece of locally scavenged elm, as a representation of this fraught interplay between land and body. Nails and raw copper wires are meant to evoke a feeling of tension and discomfort in the viewer, not dissimilar to the joint pain itself.
Artist Biography:
I am a sculptor, installation artist, and lifelong nomad, creating works inspired by physiology and my heritage as a Polish immigrant. I work primarily with scavenged and off-cut wood—from logging operations, construction clearing, and naturally felled trees. Rather than imposing predetermined forms, I collaborate with the wood’s imperfections: knots, cracks, and termite trails inform my designs, allowing each piece to dictate its final form. This dialogue with the medium is an integral part of my artistic process and draws parallels between wood and the human body in concepts of scarring, resilience, growth, and decay. Just as each piece of salvaged wood tells a story through its grain patterns, knots, and weathering, human tissues too reveal narratives of survival, adaptation, and healing.
