November  work 3

Not a blue world

I have done a series of pieces suggesting aspects of our changing world. Some have been to do with global warming and some have been to do with the financial crisis. This piece is a gentle reflection on how do we cope with a world that is nothing like our present one. A long while ago I saw a Gahan Wilson cartoon with a senator and his aide in their office both wearing gasmasks to protect from the pollution and the caption was “ those blasted environmentalist pests to see you again senator”.

I really get the feeling that the main changes are being ignored by shortsighted people ( well I’ll be dead when it all happens) and the real call to action is being overlooked. In times of crisis a leader is needed not just a politician.

.     man in the moon

  My wife just told me that she tried to reach the moon and fell off the garbage can and broke her elbow. As I commented in “the girl who reached the moon”, I loved Augustine Dallava’s ladders. This is a very different scale and to a very different purpose and the feeling of distance I think works well. In looking for a picture for this writeup there are lots of ladders to the moon on the internet. In thinking about this piece, I reckon I heark back to a few cartoons of my childhood where this was a fairly common idea. None the less it does create a story which can go in lots of directions and I am pleased that I have made it “ 3-D”

Table Setting

Table Setting was made originally for the Fringe Furniture Show. The theme this year was silver and I put in two pieces. This was the first, where I used”silver ware” to make a table using the forms as decorative elements. It really has only had the one outing so I thought it would more or less fit the theme of this exhibition.

Friendly

For an earlier show I made a big dog that was called Snarl. This time I have made a smaller dog who is quite friendly. The Dog is part of an interaction of “the dog and the bird and the girl”( although at time of writing the girl is only half done!)  and I feel that the pieces will interact to create a story just through their presence. I really like the mosaic like effect of all the panels building the form and although the technique is similar to the ball forms this is of a different scale.

Bird

I must have a bit of a thing about birds and dogs. In the last exhibition there was a dog boy and a bird girl. In a lot of the small pieces bird forms have figured at some stage.

Girl

I didn’t know whether I would get this piece finished . It only started on Tuesday and finished on Thursday!

I had the idea for this show of a girl reading to a dog and a big bird as part of the untold stories theme. It matched the stories part and the combination of the three struck me as a story waiting to be told.

The red dress was initially from the fact I used an old fire extinguisher as her torso and the red seemed appropriate( as I have any number of sketches with girls in red dresses.( I must admit I used the red paint for the “red “ exhibition and I was delighted with the intensity of the colour).

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  Zeppetable

Zeppetable was made originally for the Fringe Furniture Show. The theme this year was silver and I put in two pieces. This was the second, where I used Zinc Plated steel to match the theme and as it looked industrial it suggested Bauhaus era themes. The zeppelin is turned wood cut in half and covered with Aluminium flashing. Because Zeppelins are fairly “1920’s” this suggested an art Deco feel. Because it is so big it hasn’t been seen since the fringe and I love the idea of a “story table”.

  seed

This piece was originally for a show called Grow at Moreland. I made seed which is the beginning of all growth. The seed is usually encompassed by a husk or shell which goes into feeding the growing seed. This shell is made up of nutrients and materials which are basically junk. Our society grows from the detritus of past civilizations and ideas which once were new are now used as food for our growth. I have used junk in the form of the seed case and a growing form for the new seed growth to represent this. The form of the seed case echoes Yin and Yang and this is balance in the world. This is also reflected in my two characters growing from the seed which are a male and a female form. This part is coloured to show the new life and this also has overtones of the growth of the green movement and also aspects of Adam and Eve . It also creates its own story.

Lift

I can't see this piece earlier in the year although I did it a while ago. Now it as at the untold stories exhibition

Sketches