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My Artwork

This page written 01/07/1998. Updated 30/11/2001

i did 'A' Level Art. Strange to think that an academic qualification can be gained from something which relies on talent, but i suppose that's the same with most things - languages, science, whatever. Anyway, i got a grade A so someone must have thought i was good.

This was (ahem) around ten years ago. At that time i was into all things big, and most of my work was done on a large-scale. A lot of it was 3-dimensional. Therefore my 'A' Level work on this page is in the form of photographs rather than scanning in the actual stuff.

Here is my main piece of work submitted for examination for my 'A' Level. At the time i was spending a lot of my spare hours in the house of a child-minder friend. Sometimes i stayed the night in a room with two cots so i got that 'caged-in' feeling which this work portrays. i also used to be there at lunchtimes and would feed and change some of the babies. This influenced me in the choice of topic.

The title i was given to work with was Imprisoned, and i had three weeks to complete the work. The first week was spent sketching and thinking and ordering the wood. By the end of the second week i'd done the head, then the third week was spent on the rest of the body and the mechanics of putting it together.

It may seem to be strongly influenced by Henry Moore, whose work i do admire. But i didn't actually see any of his sculptures until i had carved the head and someone mentioned to me the likeness. One influence i did have with this was a picture of an unfinished figure by Michaelangelo. A torso carved in marble, where the stone block still surrounded the head and legs. The figure seemed to be emerging from or imprisoned in the stone. i deliberately mimicked this impression using the wood to trap the baby.

i think my Art teacher still has the head somewhere. It was on display last time i visited, which admittedly was about five years ago.

		And here i am lovingly putting the sculpture together. It was affectionately known as The Baby and i don't think it had a gender because of all the problems i'd had on that score with Chippy (below).

i really enjoyed the construction process, as i had with Chippy. But more satisfying for me was carving the wood into the shape i wanted. Michaelangelo was quoted in the book with his unfinished work as saying that he saw the trapped figures within the stone, crying out to be released. Whereas i felt that i was creating something which had not previously been there, i could still see how a sculptor could feel this. The grain of the wood dictates to a certain extent the layout of the features.

Here is another of my larger works. This was the first of my huge constructions, completed some six months before The Baby. It is the depiction of the stress i felt i was under at the time. One of the other art students refered to it as Chippy because at the time i was working at a chip-shop, and of course the wood-chip analogy. So the name stuck.

We had access to a load of old pallets in the art room, and this is what i used to make Chippy. Plus some unravelled rope. Apart from the hair, the rope was used as much to hold the figure together as it was a part of the image. It started out as female but then, and don't ask me why, i began to refer to it as 'he'. i was doing a lot of writing at this time as well, i do find that at times of utmost stress i am at my most creatively prolific.

		Chippy again from a different angle. Some of my pictures can also be seen on display behind the sculpture. The little red matchbox in both of these photos is there for scale, added by my Art teacher. Just in case you thought it was part of the work! Also on the bench in the background of this picture, if you can make them out, are some little sculptures i worked on during the first week of the Imprisoned assignment. They are wooden carved baby arms and hands. i was originally thinking of incorporating them into The Baby, but as they were so precise and made from different wood they didn't fit in. So i kept them on display as part of the thinking process that went into The Baby.

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