Star Touch

Paper, plaster, metal
2021

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I was brought up in Manchester then taught all over the world. I studied at various universities, recently doing my Masters in Birmingham. For the last seven years I have had a studio on the Welsh borders, exhibiting at the Mid Wales Arts centre.

My figurative sculptures refer to myths, religion or science fiction – from texts or my imagination – and involve movement and drama. Doodles access my imagination, then I detail the lines, planes and engineering. My sculptures are made of clay, or plaster on a metal frame. I admire the work of many artists – from Bernini and Goya to Sarah Sze.

One of my aims is to combat the frustration of our abuse of nature with a sense of awe at human potential. Some figures crawl in internal or external darkness, while others dance in space and light.

As with much of my work, this piece first emerged as a doodle in a notebook, which I then worked up into a series of detailed drawings. I am also interested in engineering a work to produce effects – in this case a Z shaped cantilever. I started work during the Covid lock down I could shut out the social noise and concentrate on concept and making.  I often dream of figures in flight, moving or defying gravity and it is a theme in my work. My figures are influenced by the drama of the great Renaissance artists, in particular Bernini and Michelangelo, but I like Science Fiction, and Marvel and DC are there somewhere too. The figures are timeless classical human shapes, for ever ‘reaching for their star’, but have a modern reference to our hope of harnessing the energy of the sun and going on to explore the universe.  Of course this is perilous. Despite being god-like giants of our world, there’s a chance of a fall, or being consumed in the fire. The faces reflect this fear and hope.