St. Francis: Patron of Nature (Small Size)

I design, carve, and cast the pieces myself: they’re wholly original. I cast them in modified gypsum (a very strong building material) with bronze powder. The pieces come boxed, can stand or hang (there's a hook on the back, which is unpainted), and can go outside. Each piece comes with a history card stating:

Among the stories associating Francis (1181--1226) with animals are the one about him giving a sermon to a group of rowdy birds and another about him taming the wolf of Gubbio, a creature who had attacked and killed a number of villagers before Francis spoke to him and took him on as a kind of disciple--after that the wolf never again harmed another living thing and peacefully followed Francis like a tame dog. The saint's rapport with nature, however, was hard won: Francis lived a rigorous ascetic life of long fasts, absolute poverty, and abandonment of attachment to all desires and material things. Through extremely strict discipline and self-denial Francis attained the mystical paradox of destroying the attachment to the self in order to be absolutely open to the world: the world of nature. This small plaque of Francis was handmade by Hank Schlau and can go outside.

Dimensions: 6 (h) x 2 (w) x 1 (d) inches