The first semester of my new course has been grand to say the least. Since I last posted any artwork on here I have moved on quite a lot and am beginning to make work that really interests me more than anything I was doing before.
The sculptures above are my latest resolved pieces of work. In simple terms they are carbonized loaves of bread, that is to say they are composed entirely of carbon after having been fired in a makeshift charcoal burner. I find them quite curious objects in themselves when presented in this minimal way. My one way of explaining what I was doing is that I took a very simple and recognisable, yet chemically complex object and turned it into a chemically very simple but less recognisable object.

In other news I will be showing a piece of work at the PARK12 exhibition in Cannizaro Park on the 10th and 11th of March.

Wimbledon College of Art

Now then.
The new academic year has brought with it a new academic establishment in the shape of Wimbledon College of art! There is a fantastic atmosphere here and a very positive working environment that is helping me to push myself in new directions.

After a long summer of laikin' about I am finally getting back into the flow of making, thinking about and enjoying art.

As soon as I can afford a camera I will be uploading pictures of the new work I am making and the work I am surrounded by at art school.

That's enough writing for now.

apologies

Apologies for the long absence from the blogging world, this is largely due to my lack of camera to take pictures of my work with however fear not, i am back again...

  As of September I am going to be a student of Wimbledon School of Art studying sculpture. Yes, sculpture. There has been a sharp turn in the direction of my work into the realms of sculpture. After making this change in my work I have felt a lot less anxious and now have a clear path in front of me.   
In other news I have just finished my foundation at Byam Shaw, I am very sad to leave after such a short period of time because it has given me so much. It has made me discover a lot about art and, more importantly at this stage, the art I want to make.

This may look like a simple stone coloured moundy thing but I assure you, I came on a long journey to get to this stage. Here's the short version.
Having been frustrated at art school by painting I decided to get back to my roots and make a sculpture from materials from my fields. The idea of making mud pies again inspired me so i went about crafting an earthen mound with the intention that people might feel the need to climb it and conquer it. Over time I wanted things to grow on it and it to be weathered away. However things did not go all to plan. 24 hours later a man in his 80s had destroyed it by putting his wellington boot right through it. This was confusing. I liked that it had caused this reaction but I didn't get to do with it what I wanted so I thought for a while about my next mound and came to the conclusion that the next one had to be welly-proof.
My solution is making my mound with ancient building techniques that are more or less carbon neutral. The mound has a mud and straw core with a lime mortar rendered on the surface.
Thanks to an octogenarian menace I have come up with something much better than a glorified mole hill.