The Eye of the Needle, 1999

Storytelling Sculpture

The Eye of the Needle is a sculpture Stoney completed in the summer of 1999. It is made from a carob tree that once grew near downtown Los Angeles, California. Stoney likes working with carob because of the pink color of the wood inside the tree.

Stoney used a chain saw to cut the carob trunk into three wedge-shaped pieces. Then he put the pieces on his lathe to give them their curved shapes. He reattached the pieces to give the sculpture the form he wanted.

This sculpture was inspired by the New Testament passage: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." The three pieces of wood are formed to look like three men all trying to fit into a very narrow place.