Put on one side

The little sculpture is more or less complete. I am not sure what I think of it yet. Perhaps it is best to simply put it aside and to start on the next. There is something very satisfying in making forms that are on one level very simple and yet actually quite complex and fully understood; fully realised. What we have here is more than two slightly bulbous forms on top of one another. There is a twist and some parts are flatter than others. The top form is slightly off balance. The sculpture is figurative, but only just. The forms being almond shape in section have edges on either side which help animate the twist. Tomorrow I have to drive to near Bath to load a sculpture onto a lorry bound for Sweden. I have been invited to send works to this exhibition over there but only have one that is suitable and not promised to other exhibitions already.

A New Beginning

I am back from London; discombobulated. It often happens I find. I come home with my world rocked by the experiences I had whilst away. I saw two giant rocks at the Serpentine, one placed on top of the other. Nothing at all had been done to the rocks apart from select them and place them. They were very simple and powerful. The exhibition at the crypt in St Pancreas is wonderful . There are 19 sculptors involved and the standard is really good. Returning home however l find myself full of doubt. Creative doubt. I need to be calm for a few days and to start afresh.

Although I had an hour of the jitters this morning I (rather miraculously and not quite believing it) feel I have made a good start on a new work. I need to urgently get a quick turnover of ideas going for the exhibition at John Martin gallery in September. This sense of urgency and of time running out only serves to fuel the self doubt. I have started small, which seems sensible, and on a very simple form.  One single segment joint with a twist. Already various other versions are springing to mind. I might have had a creative wobble that lasted only an hour. I can live with that. The past, my past, tells me that making sculpture is the best way through a crisis.

Back on the giant

Looking at the large dish form tonight I am resolved to re-work the inside one more time. The welding things did not arrive today and I spent some time working on the inside. Perhaps I am becoming obsessive about it but there are three little discernable dents in the interior that I will try to remove tomorrow. Jordan put a thin skin of sand and cement on the new garage floor. Wow it looks good. He has really worked out how to do that task. It looks far too good for a car. Shame that it is all done.

Making bases

The steel has arrived. The welder ran out of gas just when it needed to do its stuff and I have been left getting everything ready for when the gas arrives. The sub frame ( that is what I call the steel frame that is to be buried under the dish shaped sculpture) is tacked together but all needs to be welded up properly and then taken to be galvanised. The bases for the other sculptures are to be made of steel and also have lots of welding to do. Jordan meanwhile has been putting a screed down on the new barn floor. It has taken him two days but looks wonderful.

I spoke with John Martin (gallery in London) and we have arranged an exhibition for the Autumn. I realise that the barn build may have to be put on hold as I shall not want to be distracted from the sculpture. I am sure that I can find work for Jordan helping with the sculpture. He is young and unconfident but not afraid to ask when he gets stuck. It is nice to have a bit of company. The suspended sculpture in the photo is like that so that I can lower it onto it’s base. There is a hole underneath to receive a stainless rod which will protrude from the base.

Sub frame

Jordan and I have been constructing the sub frame today. Lots of pieces of angle iron welded together. The whole thing looking like a crazy spiders web of steel. The look however is of less importance than its strength as it will lie underground. We have been cleaning all the steel as we go so that once welded it can go to the galvanisers without too much rust. Even galvanised steel will rust if there is rust underneath. Jordan and I also managed to glue some more parts of windows together. They look so great with the glass in. The barn will be wonderfully light once they are installed.

Starting the sub soil base

I had fun today cutting little wedges out of a length of angle iron. This is just the beginning of a sizable structure made of steel which will lie underground in order to hold the sculpture upright. I then welded the sides of the wedges together again once I had bent the steel to close the gap in the wedge. The shape of the steel has a curve in order to lie underneath the stainless rods. I then drilled holes to allow the stainless rods to poke through. At the close of play I was trying to file away the edges of some of my drill holes that were not quite in the right place: most annoying, and I fear I shall be filing for several hours tomorrow. Meanwhile Jordan has been constructing the barn windows. The oak lengths needs planing and jointing together in order to receive the double glazed units. I somehow managed to order too few pieces of oak and we will have to wait whilst the timber yard cuts me some more.

 

Core drilling

I have finished drilling out the holes to receive the stainless rods. I managed to get them all pretty much in the right direction. Plenty of water is needed whilst drilling to keep the core drill cool. You can see the hose falling directly on the turning drill. Jordan meanwhile has been working all day with the wet and dry sandpaper smoothing out irregularities in an onyx sculpture. I am getting together the various sculptures that will be exhibited at On Form in London. Not only must the sculptures be as completed as we can make them, but they all need plinths too.

Drilling holes

Today I started drilling holes in the large dish carving. There are to be ten of them that will hold the sculpture in its eventual upright position. I am trying to drill the holes in which the stainless steel rods will fit, only a few millimetre's larger than the rods themselves in order to preserve the structural integrity of the marble. I worry a little about the rods at either end as the marble is much thinner there and as a result much more vulnerable to breaking. When you consider however that the sculpture will be supported by ten rods all working in unison, my fears diminish. With such small difference between the rod width and the hole width however, I have to be very careful to drill in exactly the right direction.

Rain fell today after several weeks of dry easterly winds. The farmers are beginning to let out the cows who are dirty and look happy to be out of their winter sheds but will nibble around for anything to eat as the grass has not started to grow yet.

Bumps and hollows

“Why does it matter dad, no one else will notice that there is a little bump”? Actually I am far from a perfectionist but paying attention to detail is something that I have been working on. I know that if I let the sculpture go out into the world with that little bump then it will catch my eye whenever I see it.Worse; it is the only thing that will catch my eye. Perhaps this all has nothing to do with perfectionism but is just about me trying to live an easy life and to sleep well at night. So now I am at that point where I am ironing out those little problems. For instance you can see in the picture that there is a slight kink in the edge by the post. This is the result of having to work with that steel in the way. This piece needs to look like a section of bubble billowing in the landscape. Bubbles do not have kinks!

What is it ?

Someone asked today. The sculpture is so simple, just a rectangular dish that will stand on its edge in the landscape. I am always a bit stumped by this question which has of course been asked many times in the past. The sculpture is not ‘of’ anything, it is merely trying to provoke certain thoughts or feelings in the viewer. I do of course have doubts myself. This sculpture is really big and yet really simple, perhaps there is just not enough there and the viewer will feel cheated in some way. I have so often found however that the ideas that work best are very simple. Simple forms seem lovely to live with to me. Our lives would seem to be overstimulated. We are constantly bombarded with information. It must be partly for this reason therefore that I like the sculpture to be very still and calm. The sun will create moon shaped shadows as it moves past the sculpture. The mottled surface will change gently in the changing light. Might it bring to mind a screen? A startling rectangle in the landscape. Yes, I think it might work really well. We shall see.

Thin slivers

Another clear day not quite as cold as yesterday although Jordan and I spent a fruitless half hour trying to make the tap work to give him a water supply. Eventually we gave up and used a bucket. The block work he completed yesterday was frosted in the night as the tarpaulin had blown off. I hope it will be ok.

I have spent all day cutting a thin slice off the sculpture to get closer to the final thickness. You can see the limit of my progress between the hammer and the disc. I will allow it to be thinnest in the middle where least strength is needed. At the bottom I will need plenty of thickness to take the stainless pins.

Chopping done

I have removed all the big pieces and must now begin to proceed with more caution. Today I finalised the edges and made their thicknesses uniform. I want the edges to be at right angles to the sides at every point, and because of this the angle of each edge is constantly varying. I spent most of the day on this task. The whole piece begins to look more animated. The picture attached is before cutting the edges. Jordan is back from a trip to New Zealand and brought the freezing cold with him. Although we are now in March the winter has returned. Flurries of snow, a fierce wind, but dry. Jordan valiantly carried on with the block work for the new barn, probably wishing he had stayed in NZ.

Mountains of waste

Good progress today despite the return of the rain which made a small pond in the bottom of the sculpture. I was eventually forced to move my shelter before the pond turned into a lake. The white dust that has fallen all around for days has become a sticky gloop. Although the mountain of waste stone is enormous, I am wondering if I can use it as a hardcore for the new barn floor. One more day of this chopping should see me with an unshaped but roughly formed dish.

Spring warmth

Another day of relentless chopping. I have made quite a bit of progress although there may be quite a bit more to remove when I have done the bulk of the block removal. I feel it is better not to try and get too close to the final thickness first time around as it would be too easy to get it wrong. Stone cannot be put back!

Turn over

Rather terrifying but all went smoothly. Nigel and Rich my wonderful neighbours came down with their telehandler and we rolled the sculpture over so that I could work on the other side. One telehandler lifting and the other catching and lowering. The first time we tried this with a similar sized block the wooden purpose built frame crumpled under the weight. This time the frame of steel was fine. I now have a huge amount of waste stone to remove. Pooch came round and took this wonderful and atmospheric picture. Thank you Pooch. The whole area now looks like it has been snowing. No snow, just dust.

Happy with the top shape

I have spent days fiddling with the top shape. Indecision always takes ages. I thought I had the shape a couple of days ago and then polished the whole thing only to decide that the shape was not quite right after all. I then re worked the shape again and I think it is now ok. Tomorrow morning I will look again to see if it still looks good. There is of course the temptation to just say ‘’ Oh to hell with it , that’s fine!’’ I know from having done that in the past that I will feel bad about it for ever more however if laziness lets me do something like that. You can see in the attached picture that there is still a flatness to the top of the sculpture. Perhaps this only matters to me and no one would ever notice. Working alone, being driven by these strange notions strikes me as crazy sometimes. Don’t answer that, I know it is madness!

Removing the high points

I removed the last of the large area of waste on the convex side of the sculpture today. The fine tuning of the shape begins now. Although very little stone is now being removed the curves want to be running into one another without lumps or hollows. I work over the surface many times with a painted sheet of hardboard. This shows the highpoints which can than be removed. There are still some dips and flat areas that will need further work tomorrow. There was a bitter wind today which swirled around and blew dust everywhere, including into my eyes.

Starting the form

The sun shone all day on me as I cut into the new block. I decided it would be better to carve the convex side of the marble first as it will be less delicate when I come to turning it over. With the other large sculptures like this I have made I am all too aware of how tricky it is to turn over. I shall make a substantial steel frame to cradle the work in when the time comes. For the moment however I have plenty of work to do removing marble from the top. I have removed a strip from side to side and from top to bottom to help show myself the way. There will be lots of fine tuning to do to get the shape exactly right. I must avoid having a flat area on top, or anywhere for that matter.

The marble waits

Crikey this feels like quite a moment. The vast block is sitting there with all its potential in tact. I am anxious to start before I begin to feel the weight of the infinite possibilities that are in front of me. Like a blank sheet of paper, it can feel feel daunting before beginning. You can see the blue lines on the block. I spent most of the day moving these around, trying to decide where they should best go. Tomorrow I shall start.

Marble safe and sound

Two large blocks are safely installed at the workshop. the damage done at the quarry seems to be superficial luckily. I have constructed two pairs of railway sleeper stands to raise the blocks up to a good working height. I think I have a plan for the thicker of the two blocks. Very simple indeed but I think one that might work well. The rectangular block will stand on its edge and billow the full thickness of the marble. A smooth dish with square corners. Without drawing it out it is hard to explain more fully. I am excited at the prospect of it though. I cannot quite decide if the sides of the marble should pull inwards resembling the shape that would be described if a handkerchief were billowing in the wind held by its corners. To keep the edges straight would lessen the resemblance to something billowing. This would be less lifelike perhaps.. I shall meditate on this through the many hours of cutting before I must decide on this.