Mending Everything (well....nearly)

The cold wet weather, dark nights and up-coming Christmas holidays precludes much work on sculptures at present.

Further “Useful Mushrooms” are in progress, and should be ready for early in the New Year (keep an eye on the blog and website, we have a corkscrew and salt + pepper pots on the way!)

These will probably be the last of the Useful Mushrooms for now, they’re huge fun but are painfully costly to make – a side effect of my insistence on bringing high grade engineering to art.

Other works planned for 2013 include a piece depicting the pain and frustration of realising an artistic idea, the completion of a piece that examines if cupids’ arrow is the blessing in life it’s portrayed to be, and hopefully I will finally be able to create my full size depiction of a man in the throws of the pain of losing love, labelled “Loss”

Until then, in amongst the chaos of everyday life, there is always room for web browsing, finding these…

 

….surely this is the most ironic photograph? I love the way it looks like someone has ran through the door rather than opening it (especially as it’s an emergency exit) – quite cartoon like.....

…..and if there is such a thing as a perfect sign, then surely this is it....

Finally, a sincere thank you to all those who have supported me so wonderfully throughout the year, as with most aspects in life, without the thought and kindness of those around us, things would be a lot harder.

Happy Christmas!

(both images courtesy of Derelict Places and its contributors)

Without

Titled "Without", this piece is an interpretation, and a graphic representation, of the emotions of loss, in all its guises.

It's one of those ideas that has just somehow evolved from within me. The piece, I hope, is apt in a multitude of situations........the break up of a relationship, the parting of friends, the mourning process.....

....as without love, there is only confusion.

Designed to be wall mounted when finished, it's made of cast crystal glass and stainless steel. I am still debating the surface finish of the steel, I am torn between a dull grey or bright polished at present - the polished surface would denote the brightness of true love, the dull would evoke the opposite.


Look out for it on my website in a few weeks.

Man, nature and things on a beach

There is in me an underlying conviction that despite our best efforts to create artistic pieces of beauty, hours of work, study, thought and passion, nature will pop along and quietly trump us with a serene ease.

..to add some ammunition to the argument, here’s an item I picked up a beach in Wales…

 

It was once I think part of a bed head, although it immediately struck me as Aladdin’s lamp, with jewels over the body and a spout. Either way, nature has made a piece of human rubbish into a jewelled and beautiful object, oozing with colour, texture and light

On a different note, it’s so fragile that as it’s drying out it’s falling apart, in effect once withdrawn from nature it’s slowly dying, much the same as ourselves, the more disjointed from nature we become as a species, the less of a coherent species we become, which brings me on to a piece I’d love to do….

 

…it’s a series of a cast iron man, slowly emerging out of the ground, until finally he is completely separated from the earth, with the final man having fallen…..demonstrating that once mankind has become completely detached from nature, we will cease to be alive.

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.

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.