Sleeping Infant

 The Story

I came across these photographs of a stone carving I did in 1988 which I was very fond of at the time and still am. Looking at the photos now I would call that time in my work as my 'Romantic' period and was carving all my sculptures 'direct' or, working from memory. 

Jacob Epstein, sculptor 1880 -1959 and Stanley Spencer, painter 1891-1959 were my 'heroes' at the time and would still hold high regards today for them so-much-so that I traveled to England in 1993 to visit their graves ... 'my pilgrimage'. Interesting point here ... '93 was also the time I was taking part in a symposium in stone in Israel. The sculpture was also worked 'direct' and was titled 'The Kings Pillow' which won the first prize for me.

Epstein who helped to pioneer modern sculpture along with Spencer in painting both had more than interesting private life's ... these men were braking and changing the rules both in art and society which also appealed to my artistic senses. When you have had 'heroes' in life it's hard to rid them from your mind. They go to the grave with you.

Sleeping Infant

 Material; Polished Irish Limestone.

 Size; 17in. x 9in. x 8in.    Edition: One off. Private Collection, Ireland.  Year: 1988.

Sleeping Infant by daf is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International 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. 

''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.

ON A WING AND A PRAYER

2003


Carrara Marble , Italy
0.57m x 0.17m x 0.38m

Private Collection

Model for Large Public Work in Marble

The Story

I was approached by a man who had plans to set up a spiritual centre in South America and wanted to place a large out door sculpture in the grounds of the centre . The only brief I was given was to design a sculpture that was symbolic of  ' spirituality '  in an abstract form ,  The material and size was left to me including the siting and the lighting of the finished work . When a sculptor gets a project like this , creativity can flow , but keeping in mind the budget and not to ' kill it ',  that it can be a reality and the work get sited .  This work never got sited due to reasons out of my control and it would not be fair to the man who was giving me the commission to state it here as to why ........ it could still yet happen .
                                                                    
ON A WING AND A PRAYER ..... as I have said before titles help the viewer to form the thinking and message behind the sculpture even when the sculpture is in abstract form . My title for this work , on hearing or reading it tells you it's dealing with Hope and that's the main message in this work .
A spiritual center embraces all races and religions and that was the idea behind this one so even though I was asked to design an abstract sculpture it's not pure abstract that no body but only the artist can understand it . The sculpture must have some ' spiritual-ness ' about it and be in tune with it's surroundings and purpose ,  in other words , in harmony .
                                                                      
The front and the back of this sculpture do not exist as such for both views depict different messages . In the top photograph and starting from the top , is the ' finger of God '  pointing towards the earth and resting on the Book that's draped with in an ' angles wing ', [ ON A WING } . The book symbolic of all religious books { PRAYER } . When you can picture yourself standing and looking up at the sculpture it all comes into perspective .
                                                                       
When you look at the other photograph the sculpture has no connections in design as to what's going on on the other side , both views hide each other and both views have totally different feelings and messages .  This side the message is the ' Human '  where as the other side it is the ' Spiritual '.  The broken egg form is symbolic of birth and the form around it is the womb . The overall message in the sculpture is easy to see and understand ........ it's a sculpture of Hope for all Human Beings .

COUNTER BALANCE

2005

                                                                                                     


Limestone - Ireland
Marble - Italy


0.46m x 0.19m x 0.32m high

Model for Public Work
Collection of the Artist

The Story

' Counter Balance ' is a sculpture that I tried to portray a message of spirituality within our everyday life in our time .
The top part is symbolic of the arms of a scales with the gold leaf connected to the heavens balanced on the house symbolic of our habitat and the white marble symbolic of us as Human Beings in my stylised version of yin and yang and all balanced on the world .
In the appearance of the sculpture and the initial impact on the mind of the viewer on first seeing it , and without making any judgements ,  I wanted to give the overall feeling of spirituality in balance and in strength and lightness as in ' floating '. The sculpture is viewed 360 degrees , in that , as you approach it from any angle it ' reads ' the same .
A sculpture should ' connect ' to the people in some way that it can stimulate in mind , feelings as in sensations and emotions and in that way it lives on in their minds , consciously or sub-consciously and then it becomes part of us that we could have the same feelings towards it as if it was ' living ' .
' Counter Balance ' is a sculpture for people of all persuasions that it ' connects ' to their inner senses as  Human Beings .

SAIL ENERGY

2005
Green Limestone - Ireland
Granite - Ireland
Brass Bar


0.31m high

Model for large public work

Model in Private Collection






The ' sail ' can also be made in Stainless Steel which could rotate and the ' boat ' in a local stone of the location for the sculpture .


The Story

This is a work in the Abstract style that is designed to be sited at a waterfront with the sea as the background . I want to give the feeling and the appearance of a sail moving on the sea as if you as the
observer looked out to sea and for a couple of seconds the sail had a mirage effect on you . The brass rod is symbolic of sun light passing down the sail and in it's reality would reflect the sun light at different times of the day . The limestone as the sail and the granite as the boat would have a high polish to reflect the sun .
The sculpture is to capture the ' moment ' in the action .

A BROKEN MAN

                                                       

2005

Gray Granite - Ireland
Limestone - Ireland

Private Collection

The Story

I made this work in a naive style and giving it a ' tribal ' appearance to try to convey a ' rawness ' energy and in keeping with the title of the work . It was the title that I came up with first and then made the work to the feeling of the words and in giving the sculpture it's own energy and presence when you stand beside it , as if you were standing beside a human being telling you he is a ' broken man '.  Sometimes a sculpture does not need a title and can give out it's own message in the way the work is presented but I like to title my work as the title along with the work is just as important for they together complete the work .
It can be like a human being having no name , we are at a loss as to how to make contact and then we feel our own confidence is threatened .

RATTLESNAKE AND THE MOUSE

1987

Irish Limestone
48 cm Long
Private Collection

MIDDAY REST

1987
Irish Limestone
38 cm Long

Private Collection

COSMIC TRAVELLER

2004

Irish Granite

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

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

THE TACKLE

1987  2005                                                                                         

Smithwicks Hall of Fame Trophy
Bronze

20cm Long x 14cm x 15cm High

Private Collection - Ireland, England, Europe, Australia, New Zealand,
                              South Africa.

The Story

Two bronzes were cast each year from 1987 to 2005 and presented to people of  note in the field [ excuse my 'pun' ] of Rugby. I received the commission to make a bronze sculpture in ' Rugby Play '. THE TACKLE is the result of my observations of the game ,  a sculpture that depicts the game in all it's glory to the people who follow the sport with passion .

In '87 I was under the impression that it would be a ' one off ' commission but it rolled on for another eighteen years . It brought my name and work to different parts of the world and helped pay the bills .