Love and Time

Here's a little piece I made recently, titled “Eternal”

It defines love and time, how, as everything else ages and changes around it, love itself doesn't alter, it remains as bright, strong and vivid as it did when conceived.

The piece is made in two parts, the stem is a piece of iron, found on a beach after a storm. It's corroded, heavily worn and slowly degrading – left outside as it is, it will eventuality disappear. This is life, ever changing, wearing us with age, changing us as each day passes. The heart, conversely, is hand forged from solid stainless steel, a material renowned for it's corrosive resistance, it's ability to withstand the forces of nature and its environment. This is love, never degrading, never weakened by life around it, continual.

It's quite simplistic, but none the less I quite like it. It speaks of the essence that is love. I have spoken in previous posts how hard it can be to draw emotion out into a sculpture, however, love is not an emotion, it's deeper than that, more like a state of being I think. Rather than try and portray this depth, the strength of feeling, the pain and the raw power, I've gone along an opposing path, depicting love in it's most simple transparent form.

Generally, a sculpture portrays it's meaning from its form, it's shape, texture and often it's placement – the material will of course have a bearing, but less so.

In this piece it's the materials more than the form that give it it's meaning – I'm not sure this is a common concept in sculpture, but it's one I think I would like to explore further.

"Eternal" can be seen on the website in the near future.

Urban Art

Here’s something I found entirely by accident on a walk recently.

It’s been painted in an abandoned and very derelict church in Bewdley, Worcestershire and the most striking element to me is that I immediately read it from right to left.

In this direction it conveys the impression of afterlife, re-birth, and surrounded by overgrown and fallen gravestones of some antiquity, bought peace and poignancy to death – despite its garish colours and vivid imagery I was somehow calmed by its image.

Whoever painted it needs applause, its brave, especially considering the location and its somehow arresting, it stopped me in my tracks…..question is, was it meant to be read in this direction or is it meant to convey the route from youth to death…a real example of how art can be interpreted in different ways.

There's plenty of examples of urban art in public spaces on the net,  and the temptation to create in a public space is obvious, these pieces get an audience that is in effect easy - the art is bought to the audience rather than the other way around so there's no persuasive media needed to have the piece seen.

However, whilst browsing through photos of derelict buildings on a derelict buildings web site I came across some urban art that fits a different mould altogether. On this site there are pieces of art that are simply fantastic, and yet, they are never seen except by trespassers, those in need of a  temporary home and the demolition crew .... these artists are creating work entirely for their own  pleasure, not influenced by a viewing public or customer commission .....

Is it true to say then that an artist is only truly free to create when there are no commercial, fashion or other external influences?