Earthly Delights

Mild Steel
2023

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As a young man, I really wanted to be an artist but settled for furniture-making as a way of making a more secure living. The first time I saw the plasticity of hot metal I was hooked, and I managed to become apprenticed to a blacksmith. In London I had a viable business making arty/unusual furniture, but once I moved up North and had a young family, I supplemented my income with teaching. I taught design and technology in secondary schools, plus blacksmithing to young adults with learning difficulties.

I bought the lease of a run-down pub building in Sheffield and converted it into artists’ studios, with my forge in the beer cellar. In the last seven years I’ve been able to concentrate on making sculpture. Now I feel like a coiled spring: I’ve acquired all these expert skills and it’s time to manifest my vision and ideas. Initially my theme was my childhood dysfunctional family life, then I moved on to my recent experience of cancer. Currently I am ranting about stark injustices. My sculptures are often autobiographical, and I make them to process memories and concerns and clarify ideas. If I have a good theme, I’m motivated to power my way through many hours of concentrated metalwork.

The title is borrowed from Hieronymus Bosch and is processing my feelings about ‘climate doom’.