The Perfect Heart — Live Edge Oak & Padauk Art with Copper | Handcrafted Wood Heart Art

There once was a young man who had the most perfect heart in the valley...

You may know this parable. If you do, you already understand this piece. If you don't, read on — because Rex didn't just build art. He built the story itself, in wood and copper and time.

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart. 

 Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, 

“Why, your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine. “The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they did not fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing. The people stared – How can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? 

 The young man looked at the old man’s heart, saw its state, and laughed. “You must be joking, he said. Compare your heart with mine. Mine is perfect and yours a mass of scars and tears.” “Yes. said the old man, "yours is perfect looking, but I could never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love. I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart, which fits into the empty place in my heart. Nevertheless, because the pieces are not exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person has not returned a piece of their heart to me. These are the empty gouges – giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?” 

   The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart  and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and  placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect  anymore, but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side.

The Piece

Standing twelve inches tall and 2-3" thick., this live edge oak slab carries its own history before Rex ever touched it. The dramatic natural edge sweeps down the left side of the plank — dark, raw, irregular, left exactly as the tree surrendered it — because this piece needed no filling in of rough places. That living boundary is preserved exactly as nature made it: imperfect, unrepeatable, and all the more beautiful for it.

Cut into the lower part is a heart-shaped negative space — smooth, symmetrical, almost too perfect. And suspended within it, hanging from a small copper hook, is a hand-carved padauk heart.

That inner heart is not perfect.

It is held together with a copper plate. Bound with copper wire, hand-stitched across a visible crack. Anchored with screws. It has been broken. It has been repaired. It wears every repair openly, without apology.

It is the most beautiful heart in the room.

The Parable

"Every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love. I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart, which fits into the empty place in my heart. Nevertheless, because the pieces are not exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared."

The old man in the parable understood something the young man had not yet learned: that a heart unmarked by love has never truly lived. The gouges, the patches, the stitched-together places — these are not flaws. They are the record of a life fully given.

Rex built that truth in padauk and copper. The warm reddish-brown of the padauk deepens over time, like love does. The copper will age and patina, like we do. The oak will hold it all, steady and strong, just as the people who love us do.

Give this to someone who has loved deeply and lost. To someone rebuilding. To the couple celebrating decades of imperfect, beautiful, committed love. To yourself, as a reminder that your scars are not something to hide — they are proof of a heart that showed up.

This is not décor. This is a conversation, hanging on your wall.