Thursday, July 27, 2006

Bio-Clock

Bio Clock

A surgically "enhanced" carriage clock, transformed through sculptural surgery to become an object of fascination, and controversy.

This piece is part of the Organic Flesh Machine Series and deals with themes of genetics, surgery, mind and body.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Organic Flesh Machine in public!



















The four paintings in the Organic Flesh Machine series will be appearing for the first time in public this week. They will be appearing at Anglian Art Fair as part of the portfolio of work being presented by Ovenden Contemporary Art.

The process of creating these works is in itself surgical. In order to embed the components and other objects into the canvas I use a scalpel blade. The act of cutting the "flesh" of the canvas induces a strange mixture of feelings, liberation, perversity, guilt and power. In cutting the canvas and implanting the objects into the surface I am taking it to another level giving it a third dimension and a new life. Subsequent work on the canvas involves mending the torn "flesh" of the canvas. At times this reconstruction is akin to a process of healing.

In the final sculpture the surgical combination of machine and flesh are realised. Is this a visage of surgical enhancement, medical necessity or sadistic torture?

NEW Landscape Painting - Moor Rain III

Private Commission of Derbyshire Moorland scene using the usual limited palate of colours.
16 by 20 inches, acrylic on canvas

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Early Artistic Influences

As a child I was utterly fascinated by the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, in particular The Garden of Earthly Delights. My parents went to a great effort to educate the family and since this was before the invention of the Internet we had to use books :-). They couldn't afford expense tomes like Britannia so they bought "Purnell's Encyclopedia" which was one of those part-work magazines, which were very popular in the 70's and 80's. It must have taken them several years to collect and cost them 1000's of pounds, they even bought the proper binders. We spent many unhappy long hours copying text from these volumes to "help" with homework, who said that plagiarism was a modern invention?

Anyhow there was a great section on Bosch and I was utterly fascinated by the strangeness and perversity of all the "goings-on" :-) There really is some odd details in the painting, Satan, the one with the birds head always horrified me as a child, how could something have the head of a bird and the body of a frog? The theme of the painting is bibical and there is plenty of symbolism relating to the 7 deadly sins.

If you take a closer look you can see the following (source: wikipedia)
  • The bird sitting in the chair eating the man is supposed to be Satan himself.
  • The face staring out from under the dish holding the pink bagpipes is said to be a portrait of Bosch himself.
  • The woman near the bottom, under the bird's chair, in the clutches of a monster, staring into a mirror (which is also the rear end of some creature), is guilty of the deadly sin of pride (vanity).
  • The person under the bird's chair is guilty of the deadly sin of avarice.
  • The man nearby, is guilty of the deadly sin of gluttony.

So there's one of my early influences, probably explains a lot really :-) What are your early influences?

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

*NEW* Night Cavity
































(top) full length view
(above) close up of the sculpture at night

Latest "sculpture" entitled Night Cavity part of the Organic Flesh Machine series. As the night falls the the intensity of the light increases. My studio is unusual in that my soldering iron sits next to my paintbrushes :-)

Ovenden Contemporary Art, which I recently became a member of, are taking this and the three other pieces in this series to Anglian Art Fair