TWO STONES ...

''When I was romancing the stones'' ....


Photo taken by E. Hansen ... Thank You.

''A Monument to all Horses''  on the left of photo and  ''From the Earth to the Sky'' on the right.

''A Monument to all Horses''

Irish Limestone
 Carved from one block, 1995-1997

  9 feet long x 2 feet 8 inches wide x 6 feet high                
[ 2.74m x 0.84m x 1.83m  ]

Private Collection of Newbridge Silverware, Ireland.

''From the Earth to the Sky''

Polished African Black Granite mounted on concrete base with mirror on four sides. 
Two Blocks

19 feet 8 inches high
[ 6m high ]

2002
Private Collection of Newbridge Silverware, Ireland.

Both of these sculptures can be seen in this blog in more detail by typing in their title in the above search box or click on title to link.

A MONUMENT TO ALL HORSES and FROM THE EARTH TO THE SKY by DAF
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at deedaf.blogspot.com. 

''A Moment in a Rose Garden''

Material :  Plywood and acrylic paint.

Size :    24 inches x 16 inches
             [ 0.61m x 0.41m ]

    Private Collection,  Ireland.
.

The Story ...
When I did this painting in 1997 I more or less stopped painting at the time without giving it any thought ... and this had nothing to do with me in coming to that decision at the time about me painting but I do remember when a painter, a so-called 'friend' saw it and told me in all seriousness I should stick with my sculpture. Human nature I will never understand but I realize our emotions can get in the way. The reason why we are different from all other life forms is because we can be creative and this is something that is very personal but then we let it go and move on to the next work. Artists are people who live to be creative, speaking for myself and the emotions are what's involved in creativity and maybe it's because we can use creativity to express our self's where words can fail. An image is more powerful for an instant reaction from the mind and can leave that first impression implanted for a long time, even for a life. The artist depends on the emotions of the viewer to give the artwork a 'life' and not necessarily what the artist may have intended. As human beings we have invented everything as we know it, including knowledge and religion and to be creative is an extension of that mind to explore and be inventive.
I would encourage all to be creative and therefore I would feel mankind, apart from yourself would be the better for it ... don't think, but do. Be creative and keep away from people who belittle your creativity, they will have their own agendas in life.

 ''A Moment in a Rose Garden'' is stepping out of myself and being free as the bird flying over that rose garden.''





 
This work is licensed under a  
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.  

'Day One'

Polished Irish Limestone.

1987

13in. High

Private Collection - Belfast, Ireland.


The Story.
Everything about the carving of this sculpture I remember and since 1987 to this year 2013 it will be regarded by me as one of the sculptures where I felt in tune with the stone and though the work is in a private collection I would pay 10 times and more what I received for it to have it with me today.





'Day One' by DAF is licensed under a
 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. 

 

'OPUS ONE'

2004
  
 Irish Gray Granite

9 in. High x 12 in.Long 

{ 23cm High x 30cm Long }

Private Collection - Japan  

The Story ...
'Opus One' was made on invitation specially for a touring exhibition in Japan which took place in 2004 - 2005. Apart from 'Opus One' being a finished sculpture in it's own right it was also intended as a model for a large public work in granite to be sited in Japan which unfortunately for me did not happen. 
 Today I am still happy with this work because I felt at the time it was a new direction for me in my stone work and also in how I was 'looking' at stone that I also felt a 'maturity' both of mind and experience in working the stone was now with me and hence the title ... 'Opus One' came to me when the sculpture was completed. It was a symbolic statement on my part that this is the 'one' work that came from all of my previous works in the stone.










'Opus One' by DAF is licensed under 
a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. 

'AFRICA ... A Separate Reality'

Mix Media ... Wood, Glass, Paint, Plastic bird and gun, 
Photographs, Bullet Casings and My Memories of Africa.

14in. x 16in high x 6in.
[0.36m x 0.40m]

Private Collection, Ireland.






Africa .. A Separate Reality by DAF is licensed under a
 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at deedaf.blogspot.com.

BLACK HOLE

'BLACK HOLE''

2005

Black Granite - South Africa
Grey Granite - China
Pine Wood - Canada


2ft.x 9ins.x 6ft.3ins
{0.60m x 0.22m x 1.90m.} 

Private Collection, Ireland

 

 

   Visit the Video  ..

BLACK HOLE

http://youtu.be/Y_rX_SzLCS4

''BLACK HOLE'' by DAF is licensed under a  

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

''An Artist's Journey Through Transferance''

 

 

 

 

 

'The Transference' was the process by which emotions associated with parents and country unconsciously shifted to the child 
and in time into the artwork ... 
 the 'Final Transference.'

Transference was first described by Sigmund Freud who acknowledged its importance for psychoanalysis for the better understanding of the patient's feelings.

Extract from Wikipedia ...

 One definition of transference is .. "the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person's childhood." Another definition is .."the redirection of feelings and desires and especially of those unconsciously retained from childhood toward a new object."  Still another definition is .."a reproduction of emotions relating to repressed experiences, especially of childhood, and the substitution of another person 
for the original object of the repressed impulses." 

In my own opinion and experiences everybody in every situation 
is in transference. It is one of the important pathological effects that go into the make-up of an artist and subconsciously will  surface in the artwork without fail depending on the state of mind at the time of making the artwork, and which allows one to grow, transform and explore as an artist.      

 

 

View the Video ...
''An Artist's Journey Through Transference''
http://youtu.be/fiaxBUfptVk

''Story Box''
http://youtu.be/zdZ2b5DzJCs



All artwork and photographs by the artist.



''An Artist's Journey Through Transference'' by DAF 
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
 
 

''Dante at the Gates of Paradise''

  

''Dante at the Gates of Paradise''
 
 1998
Bronze ... Unique.

15ins. High x 15ins.
{0.38m x 0.38m}

Private Collection, Ireland. 









 The Story ...   
I could write a book about this but this is the short version ...

In 1998 on the East coast of Italy and without mentioning any town names there was an exhibition to be held for invited artists to make a small sculpture in any material with Dante's 'Inferno' as the theme.   

                                       Dante, also known as the 'Father of the Italian Language' was an Italian poet of the middle ages and was born in Florence, Italy in about 1265. He wrote the Inferno, an epic poem which also became known as 'Divine Comedy'. In short it's about his journey through Hell in finding God. This work is widely considered to be the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and so for that very reason has been depicted by many artists in the past.

                                      At this time I was in and out of Italy quite often doing symposiums that I was regarding it as my 'second home' that some of the sculptors thought that I was living there full time as we were beginning to meet up at different events and so maybe it was that my name was submitted to take part in this exhibition by one of these artists  ... but it did not really matter to me as to how I was invited my name was starting to 'move' about and that was important to me in building up my reputation as an artist and everything helps if you are on the fringe.

                                     Today I don't remember much details about the exhibition only that it was going to get a lot of coverage in the media and a catalog was to be printed with a biography of the artist and the work, which was to be on exhibition for a number of months so the 'challenge' was taken up by me because I asked myself and not to miss an opportunity, '' would I made a sculpture on Dante's 'Inferno' if  it was left to myself '' ... maybe, but I don't think so ... and so destiny calls.

                                     My sculpture was made with the intention as me being 'Dante' going through the different experiences to reach God, in this way and I still do it today in my work, I 'become' the sculpture which I feel leads to a more meaningful artwork ... it's like showing all your emotions and all that goes into making you human, in 3d. The one thing I was not going to do in my sculpture was to compete with all the other works that went before, because I couldn't, and the second thing I was going to do, was to make Dante 'mine'.

                                     In the sculpture I am showing Dante {me} as a 'ball' that rolled through all the Hell's, {Life} to reach the Gates of Paradise, {Death} only to find he cannot pass through and looking in at the Garden of Eden, {Heaven} and at the Tree of Knowledge, {God} growing from The Rock, [Faith}. The disc base is symbolic of the Earth ... as above so below.

                                  'Dante at the Gates of Paradise' was bronzed in Dublin, crated, insured and shipped off to Italy in good time for the exhibition ... and heard no-more about it for nearly two years ... my 'Dante' had gone 'missing'. When the exhibition was over I had paid for the work to be returned to Ireland but when I was not getting any information from the organizers to my letters as to where my 'Dante' was I was getting more and more angry over my 'missing' Dante and so I got Interpol involved thinking nothing more was going to come of it in the sense that they have more important things to be doing and finding than 'Dante at the Gates of Paradise'. Gave all my information to Interpol and got on with life as it was until one day and some months later a courier van pulls into my yard and unloaded a wooden crate from Italy. 'Dante' had returned home ... but not for long.

                                The wooden crate was on the floor in my studio, the van had just pulled out of my yard and in drives a 'buyer' ... a couple of hours later bye-bye 'Dante'. At this time I sold my work mostly from my own studio as I don't like to give the galleries the high commission on sales ... if a sculptor makes a work in bronze and by the time all monies are paid out not much is left for the artist but the gallery is 'good' for exposure and getting your name circulated but I still maintain that if I can sell my work without a gallery, better still. 

                                 The 'buyer' was known to me and would be in no great rush to part with money to buy art work, mostly paintings for his small but good collection, until he was completely satisfied with what he was buying. I thought he had just come to visit me as he was known to do now and again because he liked to come around to see work in progress ... and for my coffee .. but today was different. Today he had his mind made up that he was in the market to buy sculpture and a piece from me but he had no idea as to what he wanted to buy. 

                                   Now I have learned over the years that when a collector is buying not to rush them into thinking they have to buy and at the same time not to let them feel they have all time in the world so this is where the artist becomes confident in his or her work .. you have a price and that's it, nothing worse in selling something below it's value and having regrets later ... but my buyer had his mind made up that he was going home with 'something' from my studio because, and this is the nice part, the next day was his one and only son's 21st birthday and he, the father, was going to start off the son's collection with a sculpture from daf ... I would like to think that his son is collecting today.

                                    So, here we are, standing in my studio going through the small talk when for the sake of me doing something but mostly wanting to see what condition my 'Dante' was in after been through his own Hell's started opening the box ... all eyes were on the box, me telling the 'buyer' that the sculpture was just back from Italy and the story behind it in brief but he was now very interested both in the story and in seeing the sculpture as I was. Now at this time he did not tell me his real reason for visiting me but I knew by his lead-up talk that he was getting to it when off popped the lid. Removing 'Dante's' wrappings and pulling him from the box I was happy to see he was not damaged in any way, in fact looking better than I had expected but the buyer was even more pleased, he liked what he say. Without me having to explain the sculpture to him he had already grasped my intentions in it, the very symbolism behind it and saw the perfect gift for his son in starting off in his own life and then told me as to why he was visiting me.

                                      The coffee was out and we did the business. 'Dante' came home to find he was on the move again and I have not seen 'him' since but I am certain he has given much with the story-behind-the-sculpture told more often than I have made a 'Dante' ... which is only once, but maybe in the near future I might try a ''Dante' with a different twist, now I am thinking and if I was to write a book on my 'Dante', the title would be ....

                            '' Dante  Lost and Found  in Italy.''                    

 

A last word;

After making some enquirers as to what had happened to my 'Dante' I was only told that it was 'located' in the basement of the museum were the exhibition was held  ...   ''o.k.''

 

                               Visit the Video  ...
''Dante at the Gates of Paradise''

http://youtu.be/0NJ-hNBZYkM

''Dante at the Gates of Paradise'' by DAF is licensed under a
 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.deedaf@blogspot.com.

'' Faith and Myths ''

 

''Faith and Myths''

Mix media painting 
4ft. x 4ft.
[ now lost ]

The story ...
My reason for posting this work done early 1990's  is to remind me that there are times when it all comes together. My intention was to do a painting that could tell it's own story of me being born Irish and the sociological implications it had on me as a child.  All though I never considered myself as an artist who paints I feel this work does it for me and happy to leave it at that.




 
'Faith and Myths' by DAF is licensed under a
 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.