Bits and pieces

My degree is in Sculpture yet I wouldn't call myself an artist. An artist to me is someone who makes a living by selling their work, just like any other job, it is named, it has a title so that when people ask you what you do they can understand more or less what box to place you in. I like to use the word creativity. I am a creator. I make things. Yes sometimes I sell them yet I don't make a living selling artwork. The way I make a living is varied yet its always based around creativity.

What do you notice when you wander the streets ? I have a love for collecting bits and pieces that I find on the ground. I fall in love with things that most people wouldn't even notice ! Then I'll put them in my bag till I get home and one day I'll create something with them. When i find the time and the space I like to sit down and pour all the bits and pieces I've found onto a table and see what happens. I find that many pieces join together as though they were meant to be. Like lost friends reunited.

Then I may find one piece that is " a loner " so to say. He is independently strong. He doesn't need company or a joining with other pieces to show his form. Maybe just a base to sit on is enough to portray an idea, a feeling. This zip I found is one of my loners.

Then there is the other way of creating from found objects. Think of one object and collect a lot of them and from a large amount of the same material, create a unique piece. One of my favorite pieces that I made, I made from bones. I went down to the Thames river in London when it was low tide and collected bones. There are hundreds of them ! Think of all the animals that have fallen in over the ages and washed up upon the banks of the river. It was a bit like searching for mushrooms ! First of all there were none to be seen yet then when I did see one, the others would appear magically as though they wanted to be found.

Most people ask me what type of bones they are and I have no idea, I mean they may be human yet I think they are mostly sheep bones. This actually became quite a concern for me when I exhibited this piece in a gallery in Alicante as the police came along, denounced me and confiscated the sculpture. I was accused of bone theft ! I had been in Spain for less then a year and I'd already made the local papers ! People in my village would be whispering among themselves as they recongnised that the photo in the newspaper was me, the latest foreigner to arrive in their village was a bone theif ! Yet it all worked out ok in the end as the case against me was dropped and they had to return my bones and as they say there's no such thing as bad publicity.

This piece I had already exhibited in London a couple of times. It actually won first prize at the art show held at Alexander palace and an ADT charity event at Christies. The reason I love it so much is because it is a piece about death. Death I find, is usually portrayed as something quite dark, sinister. I wanted to show that it was something quite beautiful and natural. Something that we all share. Here's a question: What is the opposite of death ? Now most of you would probably have said life. Well what if I suggested to you that the opposite to death is actually birth. That is when we enter a physical state and death is when we leave that physical state. Yet we seem to note life and death as a pair like black and white. I believe life is eternal and death and birth are the doorways into and out of the physical realm. So try and remember that you have nothing to fear and enjoy each day as fully as possible. Life is eternal !