TORONTO -- In rural Maryland, there’s a special passage to a forest -- a "Doorway to Imagination" -- that’s been a labour of love during a stressful time for David North.
Built with scrap pieces of wood, old logs and fallen trees, the sculpture sits in front of a forest by the home where North and his husband, David York, spend a great deal of time exploring.
"[I] just crafted it as an invitation to the wonder and the beauty -- so it’s like a doorway to the forest. But it’s a doorway even more than just our forest. It’s a doorway to dreams, and ideas, and our imagination," said North, adding it was a way to deal with the stress of health issues that York has been grappling with.
The door doesn’t physically open, and the window is not real, but the point was to use the imagination, North told CTV News Channel.
His project first drew attention on social media after North’s niece, Kimberly Adams, posted some photos of the project on Twitter, which quickly racked up more than 160,000 "likes" and more than 26,000 retweets. Nearly 2,000 people have commented on it so far, sparking the hashtag #TheDavids.
"I look at it everyday -- and it just uplifts me," York said with emotion. "His mind never stops running. And he always comes up with beautiful, beautiful, things."
The two Davids have been together for 30 years and call their rural home "Camp Davids." Stress over York’s health issues and everything else going on in the world drove North to find a creative outlet using his hands.
"We’re not trying to escape the world, but it allows us to be able to cope in a constructive way with what’s going on in the world," said North.
