My mother loved folk art.

In the late ‘70s, she carved many cats in this style, and then she read Watership Down, and for reasons I never fully understood started carving many, many rabbits. Big and small, me and my sisters have them, her friends all over Santa Barbara still have them. Photographed here is one of her rabbits that I live with. I love this carving. My best guess as to why she loved the rabbits in Watership Down is that they reminder her of the people who were made vulnerable by the Great Depression. Those rabbits are always struggling against huge external obstacles, banding together to stay alive, I think my mom always love that narrative.

– Mike Mills