Leafing through History, Abbey park, Pershore
The above piece was designed around the brief of being about the Abbey and the Park in Pershore, specified by Wychavon District Council, who commissioned it.
I wanted to create different layers of meaning and interpretation within the piece. One side depicts a boy reading a book in the park and behind him and enveloping him is the natural world that the book conjures in the boys mind. By using a variety of scale and including the sun and moon and the roots of the tree, which we do not see but know exist, I was trying to make this part of the sculpture have a sense of being imaginary. I have included the fox which is elusive and travels by night because there is something magical about this creature and the fact that we only ever catch glimpses of it. I have a great respect for the fox, it is truly adaptable, beautiful and ruthless. It is much like us and in many ways there is an ancient battle between us.
The butterflies on both sides of the sculpture seem to me to be like thoughts and images that a book or a poem may bring to mind, light and ethereal. I was also interested in the visual connection between pages of a book and the wings of a butterfly.
This side of the sculpture could be depicting a boy nowadays and in a way feel it relates to me as a boy, spending a lot of time reading and fascinated by nature.
The other side of the sculpture depicts a Benedictine monk from way back in time, like the boy he is sitting and reading, perhaps suggesting a continuity through time. There are other connections between them, the sun and moon join the two sides and the image of butterflies flying up from the pages of the book creates another connection. l feel that the calm nature of this side of the piece conveys a more meditative state.
These thoughts and connections between things may not be picked up on by somebody viewing the sculpture, which does not really matter, but are vitally important to me in making the piece giving me a real sense of purpose.
This sculpture was designed and created purely from my imagination without using models to work from, although this way of working requires a great leap of faith and can lead to some short comings. I feel it can add vitality and give a real sense of life to a piece. The sculpture took 26 days to create mainly using chainsaws.
The Penny Whistle, Abbey park, Evesham
This piece was commissioned around the theme of music, to be unveiled at the start of the Evesham music festival in July 2007. It was made pretty much straight after my piece in Pershore and is carved n cedar, a chunk that I got from Eastnor Castle from a tree that blew down a few years back.
I wanted to make something about a very simple form of music, something in a way fairly humble. Someone sitting and playing a pennywhistle, perhaps busking.
The way I have carved the figure is fairly stylised looking at picking out strong shapes within it, especially in the face.
This sculpture was made in much the same way as the piece in Pershore, carved directly into the log from my imagination mainly using the chainsaw with some use of chisels and electric sanders. |
towns and villages of the areas that often feature in his paintings.
surgery for a while to make a living. As soon as I got my chainsaw licence I started using it as a creative tool enjoying its speed and dynamism.
