A few words

The work is usually in stone. Simplicity is the governing concept. The curve symbolises the fluid and dynamic aspect; the straight line the static, structural and orderly. A correct balance between the two brings a tension that appears to mimic life itself, too much chaos or too much rigidity both seem to introduce a breakdown.

Personally I see shapes in my minds-eye, especially early in the morning between wake and sleep. With my eyes closed, I look into the inky dark and wait for them to appear, vague pulsating mobile forms, which disappear if stared at directly. I make drawings, then models to see if they work, before starting on a stone.

The work proceeds using one’s feeling, not by thinking, or following any conceptual idea.  It is a self educating process, the work is an embodiment of your inner vision, and is a test of it. You work and adjust, work and adjust. Without a material world to make impressions in, knowledge, learning and development (so evolution) would fly away.

Why make art, I ask myself. The value seems to lie in the changes wrought in the observer by seeing the work, and in the artist from the act of creating it. Any sound or word or form can act as a stimulus to a human being and bring forth a new feeling, or thought or even action - which otherwise might remain dormant.

There are various reasons an artist creates – firstly to represent what he sees in front of him, secondly, to express his own personal interior life, thirdly to articulate the zeitgeist or times in which he lives, and fourthly to embody that which he sees beyond himself - a vision of a new potential (the four modes do intermix).

The last is a tricky challenge, he has to keep one foot in the known world whilst journeying into the unknown (within) without loosing his marbles! - for the increased sensitivity needed in order to grasp what is there, can leave him unprotected and vulnerable from the so called external real world…