TESTING ....1 , 2 , 3 ....TESTING

(A Separate Reality)


Mix Media in Glass, Wood, Sand and Stone Dust
0.33m x 0.22m

Private Collection Canada

REINCARNATION OF THE BOY KING

1997

                                                                                                              
(Provincia di Venezia)
Promenade
CAORLE
ITALY

Trachite
2m long x 1.5m high

5th International Symposium in Trachite


The Story

The town of Caorle on the East coast of Italy like most coastal towns around the world uses boulders to keep the sea from eating away the coast line , but unlike most coastal towns , Caorle came up with the idea of inviting sculptors in to carve the stones on site on the promenade . The town gets the sculpture and the sculptor gets the town , as a place for his work . Like all promenades this one is very popular amongst the people as a favorite walking place in the evenings and apart from their enjoyment of the see air they get the bonus of a '' slide show '' of sculpture as they walk . My work REINCARNATION OF THE BOY KING is a religious work , and not to far from where I worked I could hear the church bells and it was the church bells that I heard when viewing my stone for the first time so it more or less fell into place . There is always the gamble I take in doing work on a ' feeling ' . I start on the idea and in the process of the work it then becomes an exchange between the stone , the ' feeling ' and me [ the tool ] . In this work the lion and the lioness is what I kept 'seeing ' in the stone and from their union came the ' Boy King ' in human form .......... it's a different angle on the religious stories......... but it's mine .

A WORLD WITHIN A WORLD

(A Separate Reality)


Mix Media in Glass, Ceramic. Cardboard, Sea Shells and Wood.
0.31m x 0.26m

Private Collection

ENERGY FOR BENGAL

2002   

NANDAN ART MUSEUM,

VISVA BHARATI UNIVERSITY,
SANTINIKETAN,
WEST BENGAL,
INDIA

Welded Steel

2.75m High x 1.22m X 1.22m


The Story

I was invited by VISVA BHARATI UNIVERSITY in West Bengal as ' visiting artist ' . I gladly accepted the invitation because it was their recognition to me as a self taught artist , but I will admit I was quite nervous at the time because they wanted me to ' teach '. This I could not do because I believe everybody is capable of making ' art ' in some form or other , admittedly there are born teachers and there are born artists , teacher I am not , artist I try to be . So in my own way I ' interacted ' with the students , in that way I felt we all could learn from each other and I have to say here that the students were of a very high standard , both in sculpture and in painting .

ENERGY FOR BENGAL was my present to VISVA BHARATI . The sculpture welded steel through out . The main frame represents North , South , East and West , India . The top part , in a box frame is symbolic of man within his Mind and the bars of steel coming from this are symbolic of Energy which move in the wind acting as a ' chime ' so you hear different sound pitch when you are near the sculpture . The boat at the bottom is carrying the rice , the food of India , and rotates on the symbolic fountain of water , representing Life , the People , the Energy .

RATTLESNAKE AND THE MOUSE

1987

Irish Limestone
48 cm Long
Private Collection

JAZZMAN SINGS

1995

FORDONGIANUS (Provincia di Oristano),
SARDINIA,
ITALY

Trachite
2m High

5th International Symposium in Trachite

The Story

Confined to the machined block size , I set out to do a work that the people could relate to and to create a ' twist ' in the block line as you can see just below the chin . The stone was carved by hand as Trachite is a soft and volcanic stone . When I can I like to carve with hammer and chisel if the time allows me . There is something that does it for me in carving stone by hand , I feel very close to the material and the result can be totally different as to using power tools . The stone was carved in five days of nice sunshine on the island of Sardinia .

MIDDAY REST

1987
Irish Limestone
38 cm Long

Private Collection

A TREE FOR A NEW MILLENIUM

'Un Arbre pour le 3eme Millenaire'


1997

MONTBRISON
FRANCE

Gres Stone
2.50 m high x 0.5 m

6th International Symposium in Stone

The Story

This sculpture was hand carved in five days using a hammer and one chisel , which I kept sharpening through out the work . My reason for telling this is not to be boastful but to show what can be achieved in five days of carving by hand where most sculptors today , and I include myself , use power tools , but there is a nice rhythm and feeling in hearing and seeing stone worked by hand . My stones already had a ' life ' in a building that was demolished in the town and I gave them a ' new life ' in the form of my sculpture . I feel privileged in working all stone that has been here since the formation of the Earth .

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Collage on Brown Paper on Board
1.83m Long x 1.22 High (6' x 4')


Private Collection

The Story

I made this work after my visits to The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo , Sicily . The photograph does not do it justice [ but would still like to include it ] because there is a lot of information to read , as in the written word that you cannot see . While reading the overall work and the captions , the meaning of the work has a bigger impact on the sences and emotions that rise in you while becoming           
 '' involved '' in the work .

COSMIC TRAVELLER

2004

Irish Granite

31cm High x 24cm Long x 10cm Wide
Private Collection

ZYMA - ZENA [ SNAKE WOMAN ]

1988

BURGAS CITY
BULGARIA

Bulgarian Marble
2.50m Long

13th International Symposium in Stone

This work is a street bench sited in Burgas City
and can seat six adults.

The Story

This was the first symposium I took part in on invitation . Bulgaria was still under the Communist rule of Russia at the time but none of this I gave any thought to . What was in the forefront of my mind at this time was that the biggest stone up till now that I had carved was no more than two feet tall and only limestone , never marble or granite . In carving marble it's a different approach , mentally and technically , this I know now but back then all I wanted to do was carve stone , any stone type . The symposium ran for thirteen weeks and I had time , time to learn and time to find myself with the stone . I was the ' boy ' in the camp , I think about ten sculptors in all , older than me and very experienced in the working of the stone . It was from these men that I got a good foundation in stone carving and I thank them for that , maybe some of them are dead by now but they still live on in my memories to this day .
Zyma - Zena is a Bulgarian saying for a ' good woman ' and a ' bad woman ' it depends on the way it is used in the sentence . I was in a coffee shop with a Polish and Kazakh , both very talented sculptors , who were also taking part in the symposium . They took me into there ' care ' more or less , they spoke Russian and I spoke English , but that did not stop us from spending all of that day and many others together , drinking beer or wine or believe it or not sometimes coffee . Anyway , while in the coffee shop I kept hearing from another table the words , not once but many times , ' Zyma - Zena ' and asked , [ the long way about ] , my friends what it meant , ' Zyma - Zena ' ........... and it was explained to me , [ in the long way about ] , as these things are when only Russian and English are spoken through a haze of smoke , beer and eating raw sardines , and my sculpture began to take shape in that coffee shop , I can't say in my mind because it was not ' clear ' but the next twelve weeks were spent with my '' Zyma - Zena '' learning to cut marble and feeling alive and I thank Bulgaria for that experience .

                                  My block at day one .

A HOMAGE TO JOSEPH CORNELL

(A Separate Reality)


Mix Media .
36m x .34m


The Story

My tribute to one of the all time great Artists , Joseph Cornell , {American} , of the ' box art '. For those of you who know of the life and work of Cornell my homage is easy to read .
With this man's life , as an artist I can put him in a box and in the end we all go into a ' box ', my point is as human beings we have an in-built Gen for storing things away ...... like all animals  , think about it .
Cornell had a passion , that became an addiction ,
that became an ' Art Form ' and in my opinion he was the best .

''" Art is that passion that becomes an addiction that becomes a way to survive with the Mind "". .....daf

SACRIFICAL ORDER

2005


Pine Wood - Canada
White Granite - Ireland
Mirror

1.45m x 0.87m x 0.81m high


Private Collection



The Story

The granite stone in the form if a boat holds water and rotates in the wind . This work in it's message is ' Nature in it's Energy ' . Nature can provide and Nature can take it away . As human beings we are the ones who sacrifices Nature but in the end Nature is the ' One ' who will sacrifice us . The mirrors are symbolic of that Nature , who sees all , what happens outside also happens inside . The two figures , one female and one male are the ' keepers ' of the Nature , the Yin and the Yang of the SACRIFICAL ORDER .

ICE BEAR - [ 2 ]

1991

Portland Stone
43cm Long
Private Collection


The Story

I show some of my early stone work for the simple reason it was in the carving if these works that I trained my ' eye ' to follow line and to know and get a ' feel ' for the volume in sculpture . It gave me the confidence in working bigger blocks in the tonnage .... and in the carving of the stone when you only saw one face  due to the size . Because I worked all my stones on my own the ' mental picture ' of all other sides of the block had to be accounted for in that , when it came for the ' line ' and the ' volume ' to match up you have form....... the sculpture .

SPACE ODYSSEY

1993

















Irish Limestone and Steel
1.68m High

Private Collection


The Story

This work can rotate . I depicts the sun , the moon and travel in space . It was one of my first works combining stone and steel .

THE BOXER

Plasticine
24cm High