Willow Tree was introduced in January 2000 with one figurine, 15 angels, and the Nativity. The line has grown to encompass those sentiments that we most want to express. To our friends, to our family, to our children's teachers, to those near and dear, to those far and infrequent. The original inspiration for Willow Tree still holds true today: Willow Tree is an intimate, personal line of figurative sculptures representing qualities and sentiments that help us feel close to others, heal wounds, or treasure relationships to living things. Artist Susan Lordi hand-carves each original piece with this thought in mind. Her figures continue to evolve as she identifies emotions so important for us to convey, and renders them in simple, pure gestures. These art forms beautifully express love, closeness, healing, courage, hope...all the emotions of a life well lived. The name Willow Tree was chosen to symbolize that which is gestural and beckoning. The figures are columnar in design, like a tree, and often carry natural objects or animals as metaphors for human virtues or qualities...rosemary for remembrance, a bird for healing, flowers for beauty. The sculptures are rendered so as to suggest elegance, simplicity, peace and serenity. Forms reveal their expressions through body gestures only...a tilt of the head, placement of the hands, a turn of the body. Emotions are left to the viewer to discern, which makes them personal and powerful. Willow Tree is an understated line that speaks in a compelling and powerful way.