Artist Statement

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​I aim to instil in my work a sense of life, movement, and warmth - stone can often look like a cold, heartless material so I try to fill it with gentle life, give it presence. The tactile nature of my work is very important to me, I want the audience to feel that irresistible urge to touch the work; momentarily deceive their eye. I’m often drawn to creating works involving cloth and drapery, I find the final result of making the hard stone look so soft and malleable is as appealing now as it has been throughout sculptural hisotory. .​

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With a background in historic, architectural and classical carving, the forms and significance of these traditional trades and crafts remain close to my heart. I feel that a sculpture in stone has an innate quality where no matter the subject the stone gives the piece a presence, a connection with the ancient, the classical, the architectural - a solidity and presence  that is hard to gain in any other material

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​In my most recent work I look at the human form, playing with the idea that making a figure in stone, putting them on a plinth gives the person depicted a formality and grandeur. The sense that the specific person shown is worth something more than the flesh and blood of the observer. I look at making the figures I create less formal, less specific, they may be immortalised in stone, but they are still a human like any other. With this idea I look at removing the specific features of the person but emphasize their life and character through informal gesture, movement and gaze.

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The materials I use, their provenance and history are important to me: I try to use local materials, stones that have travelled as little as possible, that have a connection to the place I’m working in.  I often use reclaimed stones that already have a history so that I can be part of the continuation of that stone’s story as well as being part of the lineage of ancient skills and techniques passed from generation to generation