The aquatic realm is the root of much of my work, the result of spending six years on a boat in the Caribbean in my youth and where I also learned to dive. In particular I am drawn to forms that describe influence and reaction, which is linked to my early survival mechanisms. I see the Soft Sculptures as a type of hyper-reality or memory of an interaction with the world around me; an occurrence absorbed in my brain as a multilayered sensory experience that creates an emotional footprint.
For the most part my work is inspired by nature; the end product being stylized or cartoon like forms made of sparkling faceted glass. The animal in the sea that I feel the closest affinity to is coral. There are so many different kinds, both ridged and soft; their basic building block a hexagonal tube made of calcium carbonate. Like bees constructing wax cells to fit any negative space, coral colonies exist in endless variation. Since my move to the North West fifteen years ago I have found the same fascination for the seaweed and kelp here, their curious and pliable forms above and below the waves providing endless inspiration.
Water was brought and Perseus washed his hands,
Triumphant hands, and, lest the snake girt head
Be bruised on the hard shingle, made a bed
Of leaves and spread the soft weed of the sea
Above, and on it placed Medusa’s head.
The fresh seaweed, with living spongy cells,
Absorbed the Gorgon’s power and at its touch
Hardened, its fronds and branches stiff and strange.
The sea-nymphs tried the magic on more weed
And found to their delight it worked the same,
And sowed the changeling seeds back on the waves.
Coral still keeps that nature; in the air
It hardens; what beneath the sea has grown
A swaying plant, above it, turns to stone.Ovid’s Metamorphoses (IV.740-752)
I think of the individual units; the hollow murrine as architectural elements fitting together creating a fluid or floating object, their orientation determining the curvature of the form. After a decade of working with the hollow murrine I am continuously engaged in refining their methodology of construction and in their production process. I create the Soft Sculptures in a pace that is slow and meditative, subtracting or adding material as the sculpture takes form, affording time to make the necessary changes. This being a welcome counterpoint to my experience of working for two decades in the hotshop, where speed is a premium.
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