Love and Death

Finding inspiration to craft a sculpture is never hard for me – the creation on the other hand can be more difficult to achieve.

A lot of my pieces stem from my sense of humour, created to release my droll inner wit. Often designed somewhat tongue in cheek, they hopefully bring smiles to faces and exude and portray the fun I had in creating them – that is certainly the intention at least.

Some are more of an experiment in mixing engineering elements with artistic undertones, whilst others are drawn out with more depth, displaying the emotions that simmer within.

These are the harder ones to create, persuading the emotions to translate into a sculpture with the right level of raw power that it deserves.

There’s an enormous bravery in an emotional piece for me, it’s the equivalent to striking up a conversation with a total stranger on the subway and pouring out all the pent up troubles on them. The opening of the soul in this way deserves praise when it’s done to good effect.

Which brings me onto this piece. This is as raw, powerful, and emotionally open as a sculpture can be.

It's a gravestone in the Mt. Macedon Cemetery, Victoria, Australia.
The sculptor, Peter Schipperheyn, created the piece in marble on behalf of Christina Matheson, the widow of Laurence Matheson, who passed away in 1987.
The pain, the devoted love and the overpowering emptiness of loss are so powerfully conveyed....

There are pieces that amaze, make us stand in awe, make us think and make us laugh….this one however just makes me cry….

Huge respect

(photo courtesy of  cultofweird.com)

 

Mont Orgueil Castle, Jersey

Another fine piece found whilst in Jersey, was this sculpture in Mont Orgueil Castle.

I was convinced it was created in steel, but in actual fact, its cleverly and skillfully crafted from wood by artists Bill Ming and Stan Bullard.

The piece represents the medieval prisoners captured and held in the castle and is cleverly placed so as to surprise and startle as one enters the tower....it is vivid and quite shocking, beautiful.

Devils Hole, Jersey

On a recent visit to Jersey, we stumbled across this...

The story goes that in 1851 a ship’s figurehead washed up inside the Devil’s Hole, a crater with a tunnel formed by the action of the see. The wooden ships figurehead could not last forever exposed to the elements and was replaced by a succession of modern interpretations, this being the latest version.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any reference to the artist, nor why the figurehead was kept alive in this way over the years, but it is a powerful piece well worth taking the time to visit. If anyone can tell me who the artist is I'd be very interested.

It sits on an invisible plinth just below the water level of a pond, surrounded by dense fauna and somehow floats on the still water - the pond weed, mist from the sea and eerie silence all add to the atmosphere.

I found it a vivid and powerful piece, and a clear lesson in the merit of choosing the right location for a sculpture.

Usefull Mushrooms

Here’s one of my latest pieces, less like art and more just practical fun.

It’s a bottle opener, the stainless steel stem is solid, so is heavy enough to stay put, the head is red nylon with stainless rivets in it, and it’s this that is used to pull the top of the beer bottle.

To add class, I also experimented with copper versions, one with protruding spots....

 ...and one with a smooth surface....

...all versions are practical and will be on the website soon.
They're all a bit of fun and the hope is maybe they will bring sunshine to someone's life.

I’m now working on a corkscrew of a similar vein and maybe a salt and pepper set….I’m entertained by the concept of developing a range, under the guise….

“The Useful Mushroom Co”

….quite why is beyond me, but it does make me chuckle.

Suggestions for useful mushrooms anyone?

Plumbing problems

Possibly the most fun I've had with a piece for a long time, here is my latest humorous sculpture, titled simply “leek”

The vegetable is real, and so the piece was only in existence for a day or so before things began to get pungent and the whole thing was taken apart. Considering this, there was quite some effort. The tap is a 2” stainless steel gate valve, with 2” stainless steel pipe sections protruding from top and bottom.

These pipes had to have threaded sleeves welded on, and the bottom piece has also needed a flange welded on to both resemble pipework in an industrial environment and to allow it to stand. I then had to cut a hole in the top piece of pipe, trying my best to give the impression of a burst or similar, and then finally the whole thing was hand polished up in a satine finish to give a nice semi-dull effect.
Fitting the vegetable was the easiest and quickest part, with photographs being taken in earnest to quickly capture the sculpture before the leek started to turn – all quite frantic. The pipe work and valve have been retained, maybe one day they will be useful for another project – all that remains of the piece is the photographic record. It will end up on my web site one day soon, and then maybe I should consider making a steel leek to give it some permanence.

Sad Art

Here’s a sketch that I recently drew on a more somber day…

Sadness can be an extremely destructive emotion, almost as if an addictive debilitating drug feeding on a self perpetuating spiral of despair and helplessness...when in a depressive form, it can bring one to total catatonic failure...overwhelmed by emptiness and unable to see or make sense of anything or anyone..

It is refreshing then that as this emotion has such a huge strength, it can become almost overpowering when portrayed in art. Take this fantastic piece from Seo Yeong Deok made up from bicycle chain...

or this wonderful piece by Michael Magrath which is made from from salt stone and is designed to degrade in time, making it every day that little bit more hopeless....

........they both reek of the hollow shell that is a man in the throws of the empty lonely darkness.

Art and Religion

We make sculpture for a number of reasons, it can be an escape, an outlet for pashion and frustrations as they build up inside, it can be to satisfy another through commission. It can also be a simpler method for some to communicate, an easier forum.....

Art is a release, as a religion is for some if you like, connecting people who would otherwise remain disconnected.

It offers us, as people trapped in a harsh world which as a species we've created but we really aren't designed to exist in, a way to connect with something larger, a way of escaping the limitations of our individual life and individual selves.

Personally, if I'm not creating something I go quietly mad … the desire to get the image in my head out into a tangible piece is so strong it can drive me to destruction.

One of my recent works is a simple wooden cross. Measuring about 2ft by 1ft, it's made from kiln dried walnut wood and deeply polished.

The cross was made for a picturesque and tiny Chapel at Abergeirw in North Wales.

Clearly not in any way an original piece, this is a design that is thousands of years old. It requires no special skills or materials, and is fundamentally simple to make.

Oddly ironic then, with the religious undertones that are associated with art and its effects, that it was a deeply satisfying and moving piece to make...