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. 

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.
 
 

''Sun Temple in the Andes''

 

''Sun Temple in the Andes''

2005

Pink Limestone - France

Blue Limestone - Ireland

Gold Leaf

6ft 6in High x 6in x 4in     { 2m x 0.18m x 0.12m }
Base 11in x 10in   { 0.30m x 0.25m }

Private Collection, Ireland.

 

The Story ...

              ''Sun Temple in the Andes'' is a sculpture that was entirely inspired by the stone and it's colouring and one of those sculptures that 'makes' itself and therefore lets my mind free in peace to enjoy the experience of carving the stone.

              This piece of French Limestone came away from a bigger block because of the dark red deposit that was trapped when the stone was being 'born' into nature. Limestone is a sedimentary stone composed largely of deposits of the minerals calcite and aragonite and these are a crystal form of calcium carbonate that are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms and other form of animal life that were trapped when the stone was being formed. Often when I was carving limestone I could smell the 'sea', gases that were locked into the stone millions of years ago and only released when I cut the stone. I always felt 'good' when I smelled the gases, it was as if nature was bringing me back in time ...  which it was.

Twelve sided stone of Cusco 

           Incorporated into my sculpture and carved at the bottom 
and symbolic of what the Inca culture was built on I included 
the Twelve sided stone of Cusco which was the historic site of the Inca empire. The Inca can be traced back 1200 A.D. The empire began it's rapid expansion in the late 1430's and would dominate South America for the next century. When the Inca were at their height of  it's power the Spanish arrived into Aztec lands further north, bringing with them smallpox that would sweep through the Inca lands before the Spanish had even stepped onto Inca soil. 

           Inca stonework for me is one of the 'wonders of the world'. To see these stones close up was incredible that I was lost for words and can only say inspired me in my future work in the stone. They are massive in size and weight some up to twenty tons and more. Fitted together with no type of mortar that most stones have survived earthquakes to this present day.  

            The top part of the sculpture is my interpretation of a doorway into a temple where the sun was worshiped for it's energy and power as the giver of life. At the foot of the temple I carved terraces's into the stone symbolic of Machu Picchu, 
built around 1450 and referred to as 'City of the Incas'. 

It's where I think I would find a 

''Sun Temple in the Andes'.

***  

 

 Visit the Video ...

 http://youtu.be/I5GERTNnahE

''Sun Temple in the Andes'' by DAF is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at
deedaf@gmail.com.

'Spirit of a Condor'

2004

White Marble - Italy

Blue Limestone - Ireland

Black Granite - South Africa

2ft4in x 8in x 5ft6in high
0.68m x 0.25m x 1.68m 


Private Collection Ireland

         The Story ...

                                When I was in my time of making abstract sculpture and working in stone a strong feeling passed through me one day and left me in no doubt that my time in working 
the stone was coming to an end and when I tried to go
against it thoughts of having an accident with the machines
or a stone falling on me were always with me from that day on. Each day that you carve stone is a day when something could happen as an accident but I never thought about that because when you are in the state of creativity there is no
room for fear or doubts of any kind.

                                                     

                                                     Now before this happened I had no fear that something would happen to me while working the stones and this is coming from one who worked with no guards on the angle grinders I used for cutting the stone, in fact,
total disregard for safety to myself so much so that at times I worked in my bare feet always with no mask and weather permitting sunglasses as goggles because I felt and still do 
that I was doing what I was born to do and nothing was going
to happen to me and for nearly 25 years I worked like this
with no accidents to myself from the machines.

                                                         

                                                     My reason for telling you this is, in the year 2004 I made a sculpture from off-cuts of other stones I was working on at the time I had this 'change' come over me about my 'future' as an artist in stone. No thought was given
in the making of this sculpture and I believe like all good art comes straight from the subconscious mind where it is already 'made' and I was just the means to bring it into reality. 
The title I gave this sculpture ... 'Spirit of a Condor'.

                                                    I remember ... this sculpture was made and finished in three days and during the time of
working the stone I was in a 'bliss' state of mind that I felt I
was the Condor in flight over the landscape like a feather on the wind and consider this work today to be one of my best sculptures in stone and at the time of making it I also felt that I would find it hard to better it in my future work with the stone.

                                                 Now two things happened here, the first was that a 'contentment' had been reached in myself and my work that, in future works in the stone my mind would always relate to and try to recreate the 'feelings' I had in making 'Spirit of a Condor' ... and as an artist this is not good for creativity in fact, it could put up a mental block which would also bring on anxieties about the work and that would affect me creatively in the working of the stone ... 

and at this point of the story you have to remember my
'attention' for 'safety' standers.

                                               The second was ... ''Was it all coming to an end'' ... I was Lucky in the time while I was working with the stones. I got to travel the world on invitation and leave my sculptures in public places from Kazakhstan,

when it was still a communist country and under the hand of Russia to South America and across Europe and into Asia,

 including some big [very big] stone sculptures in Ireland, in total, 21 public sculptures ... and why do I think I was Lucky,
as an artist I am self thought and 'free' from any 'teaching' directly and that to me makes for me to be my own 'artist',
at least I was not copying the 'style' of some teacher and
maybe never finding what I might be capable of doing on my own. I always worked with no help from others, because I believe it has to be my 'energy' going into my sculpture.

                                                 Roughed out my own blocks, carved and finished ... nobody can take this satisfaction away from me and what does it in-tale ... a selfish {which very few could understand} 100% dedication to my art and a driven need to create from a material that is millions of years old before I changed it's form and gave it a new life and so
I have great respect for the artists who carve the stone as 
'direct carvers', working with the stone and sometimes
only the impression of an idea for a sculpture and the
sculptors from the past who have left works that 'talk' to me. 

                                                     In July 2006 my stone carving came to an end as if it never happened, and I have not cut
stone since though I miss it at times ... but now another door
has opened for me in this stage of my 'creativity-journey'
and I now work in a 10ft x10ft space with a small window
which I call 'The Pigeon Hole' and teaching myself to
work the local ball-clay into life-size figures in a very realistic  
and symbolist 'style' ...

no machines no models and no sunglasses ...

but still in my bare feet.

'Spirit of a Condor' at night.

Visit the Video

http://youtu.be/4DhHGx00VwU

'Spirit of a Condor' by DAF is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at deedaf@gmail.com.

'SHRISTI' ... Life in Creation

THIS SCULPTURE IS DEDICATED BY THE ARTIST
TO THE VICTIMS KILLED AND INJURED IN 
THE 1984 INDUSTRIAL DISASTER IN THE 
CITY OF BHOPAL, INDIA.


 

'SHRISTI' ... Life in Creation.


In the collection of
BHOPAL CITY,
INDIA

Rajasthan Sandstone
2m Long x 1.83m High x 0.8m
[6ft 6in x 6ft x 2ft 8in]
2002

The Story ...

I was invited in the year 2002 by Visva Bharati University in 

West Bengal, India as a 'visiting artist' who was 'self taught'. 

The university was set in the grounds of the home of Rabindranath Tagore, born in 1861 and who died in the year 1941. 

A poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, 

and painter and to his credit he won the Noble Prize in Literature 

in 1913 which also made him the first non-European to do so.

                 I was quite honored to be invited for the two months 'interaction' with the students and my time in Visva Bharati was a good time for me although India turned me 'in-side-out' and left me with a rawness about being human which I now can say plunged me deeper into myself and my work .. and would I do it again .. yes ... because I feel in finding my way in my art one needs 'wake-up' calls in life, like sign posts pointing you in your direction.

                 While I was in Bharati I heard about a sculptors camp that was to be the first to take place in Bhopal, which is the capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and so I felt destiny was tempting me that I could not let it pass without asking if I could take part, that was not a problem because with me there they could then call in an International Symposium but what was the problem I was to fly back to Ireland two days before the event was to take place and not thinking about my other commitments back in Ireland I tore up my plane ticket and bought a train ticket for the one and a half days train journey to Bhopal from West Bengal. I felt I had to go to Bhopal and 'cut' stone.

                   If you ever want to do something in your life that you will never forget take a train ride in India .. you won't be bored and there is always someone who will want to talk to you. I saw 'miracles' take place on the train .. like the 'blind musician' beggar singing his way down the aisle of the train only to be 'cured' when we had reached the next station where he got off to board the next train back to the station he got on. This might take place several times during the day and maybe on every day of the week. A 'good begger' could take in a nice amount of money depending on their 'talents' and children were always a winner.  

                There is a huge sign in Calcutta main train station, 

letters must be at least four feet high and in red which reads ...

NO EXPLOSIVES ALLOWED ON TRAINS 

When I first saw this sign I was beginning to know what India was about and my feelings were telling me that India was all about 'survival',  physical and spiritual .. survival for the people in any form that it comes in and if that meant 'privately' transporting explosives on the train ... then it was going to happen, but that didn't stop them bringing goats onto the train or hens only to be standing or sitting in the aisle beside you with an 'expression' on their face 'all's good'. The trains make for an interesting journey of the life in India on a normal day.

                  I arrived in Bhopal train station in the afternoon, and what I remember the most, apart from the crowds of people milling around others sitting or sleeping on the platforms with their cases tied to their ankles ... the children playing and others watching me with amusement and let's not forget the packs of roaming dogs looking for anything to eat and the station workers waiting for the cow to move itself off the tracks before the train could move off ... was the heat, and it was hot and that's the way it was for the next two months with no rain, from early morning to some relief at night, but not much. I have always worked in countries that were hotter than Ireland at any time of the year and India after Africa was the biggest test for me but once I settled in mentally and physically I was better coping with it better than the locals ...

and truthfully, I loved it. It made me feel alive.

                 Rajasthan Sandstone ... do not be fooled by the name ... on being told I will be working in sandstone I thought things were looking up in that I could pace myself in working the stone in the heat ... but how wrong I was? ... way off the mark. This 'sandstone' is extremely hard and the only way I was comfortable 'happy' in  working the stone was by 'punch' technique with hand tools ..

 so I was in for long days of  'punching' out the form in the stone. When working in this way, from the start it's best to know exactly what you want to do with the stone, and at the best of times this method of working was proving very exhaustive physically and frustrating in that the 'finished' sculpture must be kept in the mind during the working of the stone and more so when the sculpture has to be finished by a certain date and if panic sets in it can all become very messy ... so ... what work's for me is that it's best to work but look more at the stone, if nothing else you are in control until 'creativity' enters and then 'control' goes out the door ... as it should be. In the process of making my sculpture I can find new emotions in myself that can take control in the art but lose them when I leave the work. 

                      I knew nothing of Bhopal before arriving there but it was only when I was there ... and asking ... why was I seeing, quite a number of deformed people in Bhopal. People were very surprised that I had not heard of the 'Bhopal gas tragedy', as it is known locally. The city of Bhopal attracted international attention after the disaster rather than before, and all because when Union Carbide India Limited, a pesticide manufacturing plant leaked a mixture of deadly gases including methyl isocyanate around mid-night of the 2th of December 1984 leading to the worst industrial disaster in the history of industrialization and the loss of thousands of lives in the explosion, the exact number is still not known. Now I had the theme for my sculpture and my reason for staying back in India and going to Bhopal ... it was my destiny to make this sculpture for the people who no longer will find the answers or the powers-to-be taking action to bring justice.

                       Like all of my sculptures outside of Ireland there was to be no hint of  'Irish-ness'  to the work and must be what the local people can understand and relate too and so, in looking at the stone it gave me my direction by it's natural colouring of rust red. The two deep rust coloured areas on the stone were looking more like 'fish heads' each day to me, and that was my starting point ... 

now I had an idea finished in my mind and a stone that was called a sandstone that needed a new life that would bring hope to people who wanted justice done. 

                 When the creativity is there and your 'reason for being' the confidence grows each day and the physical and mental strength matches it that I know inside that this is what life is all about for me ... the making of my art for a cause ... 

                

         The message in this sculpture is about Life, Hope and Birth. The egg is symbolic of all life forms beginning in an egg and then exploding into a life form in the two fish, the 'two' being symbolic of procreation and the fish a reminder to us that most life forms including human beings begins it's journey in water. 

                    To me it's a sculpture that I feel most people, even with no understanding of art could understand the meaning behind the message in the sculpture when looking at it .... as I feel it was for the women who lived at the edge of the lake where I was working that brought me strong sweet tea everyday in the afternoon ... 

they understood 'SHRISTI'.

 

 View the Video
   http://youtu.be/zXFAJ8KcBQU  

A 'Thank You' came in a poem written on completion
of the sculpture.

A Fish - Symbol of Existence

A charming eyed fish solitary
Beauteous rosy smile with glory
As though its splendors of entity
fragrance and prettiness harmony
I see, I think its rare treasure
Unconfined wholly beyond any measure
One who creates here truly
with a great eminent goal lovely
Becoming rapidly environment regulation
Indeed a major issue for corporation
fresh and pure water are gradually becoming rare
grave health hazard pollution is everywhere
Today man has disturbed nature balance
This symbol to raise awareness for co-existence
Surroundings poses a danger for life
Like fish, without water how we live
To enlighten human beings as a
strong artistic weapon
This energetic artist's performance
illustrate the art for cause and beneficence.

Composed by Mrs Kanto Shukla
24 March 2002
Poetess of India.

''The suffering continues
so does the struggle ..
let us not forget Bhopal 
and the people worldwide 
who suffer just to live.''
                                                             daf


 
SHRISTI - Life in Creation. by daf is licensed under a  
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.deedaf.blogspot.com.

''In Jade's World''

 

''In Jade's World''

This sculpture in marble is dedicated
to the memory of my daughter.


  

In the collection of
LE PRADET, Municipality,
FRANCE.

Romanian Marble
6ft 6in High x 2ft x 2ft
2m High x 0.6m x 0.6m
2000


 


View the Video ..
''In Jade's World''
http://youtu.be/gimTxTcLN9k

''In Jade's World'' by DAF is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at deedaf@gmail.com.

'A Broken Man'

 

 

'A Broken Man'

2005

Gray Granite - Ireland

Blue Limestone - Ireland

5feet 3inches high {1.60m}

Private Collection, Ireland.

The Story

I made this work in a naive style in giving it a 'tribal' appearance

to try to convey a 'rawness' in 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 emotions along with the title. 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 make it complete.

Visit the Video ...

'A Broken Man'
http://youtu.be/JLC99Nt7LAc

A Broken Man by DAF is licensed under a

 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at

 deedaf@gmail.com.

The making of 'WISE'

                                                WISE

Carved from sandstone ' Mu Wen Sha Yan' .... ' Wooden Wave Stone'   

Yunnan Province in Southwest China

2006

4m High

       1m 10 Face 

     1m 40 Side

 Private Collection Ireland  

                  The making of WISE 

The carving of the sculpture 'WISE' came to me as a private commission. My client was quite sure as to what he wanted as a sculpture to be sited in his garden. My brief was to make a sculpture to represent something on the lines of the Easter Island heads that are carved in stone.  These are monolithic human figures and heads carved from stone on the Polynesian island known as Easter island, off the coast of Chile and were carved between the years 1250 and 1500. The tallest is almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 75 tonnes the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished stone, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons. These stones were carved by teams of craftsmen and were carved over long periods of time but for my own sculpture I was allowing myself three months to finish carving my stone working up to ten hours a day and for WISE to be sited in it's new home.         

After viewing my clients gardens a site was chosen for the finished sculpture and I set about making a model to scale. The choice of stone was left to me and I chose a Sandstone from Yunnan Province in Southwest China. This sandstone was suitable for outdoors due to it's hardness and the stone had a very distinctive grain in it that looked like wood-grain when wet which my client liked because of his passion for trees and therefore I ordered the stone in December 2005 in two blocks. My reason for this was due to transport on the roads and lifting into site by crane but makes for carving more difficult in controlling the 'line'.

The two blocks arrived into Ireland in March 2006 by sea ... and I began to work. Sandstone is very high in silica and when cutting causes a lot of fine dust that at times you feel you are working in a sandstorm which it is. The blocks were carved separate, that is standing apart but side by side to allow me to move from stone to stone while carving and then doweled on site and finished. I allowed myself three months to make and deliver to site, a little too tight a deadline working on my own but work-work-work and it can be done. It was delivered and sited on the appointed time to my client's satisfaction and mine too.  

My reason in naming the sculpture ''WISE'' was because of my client. I found him to be a wise and humble man and to this day he does not know the true reason as to why the sculpture is called 'WISE' but when I presented my working model to him and told him the title I said, when he asked why ''WISE'' for the title, my answer to him was because it looks 'WISE'. When an Artist finds a client who allows the Artist to 'listen to the stone' and be that Artist ...  he is ''WISE''

                                      

Me standing between the two blocks on the first day of carving

                  The top part in the process of being carved using a combination of hand tools and angle
                                                          grinder to remove the waste.

                                                          The bottom part being worked.

                                                      It is at times like this that you have to
                                                                   keep it all together ....

                                                                   to get to this stage.

                                                      The two parts of WISE in progress.

                                                 Stone waste from working the two blocks.

Concrete base for WISE, poured on site.



WISE being lifted in  by crane over the tree tops to it's new home...

it was placed into position by myself and the crane operator using walkie-talkie.

It took a great deal of skill on the part of the crane operator to line up the two stones without damage.

WISE in position on it's concrete base
You will notice the overhang of stone when the two stones are put into place this is to allow me to carve the two stones to mach up and finish.



Side view to WISE before I started work on matching up the two stones. 

You can see from the photograph that I made a platform around WISE to finish the carving. This was the only time in working the two stones that I had seen them placed together.

Wise

                                 Me looking up at WISE and very likely thinking how I got to                                   

this stage ....  but the self satisfaction cannot be described ....

                                 you have to try it for yourself.                             

The face looking down at you from inside the nose was an after thought on my part and came about when I was standing at the stone and looking up at it.  It was to act as a surprise element when you were looking up at the stone because it is not seen when approaching the stone or from any side. This is where my client gave me my 'artistic licence' to be the artist for it was not part of the original model.