Wood Carvings

Influences

Despite the possible impression that I give with my paintings, I love the technological age in which we live. I love machinery, mechanisms, electronics, architecture. I just wish that everything wasn’t so disposable, so polluting, and wasn’t manufactured by overseas slaves in sweatshop conditions. We need to value our technology more, look after it, fix and maintain it.

I’m influenced mainly by man-made forms— electronic components, machine parts, packaging, plugs, switches; basically geometric solid objects. As with my painting, my carving has pop culture influences too; here in the form of 1960’s Tiki sculpture. I don’t try to copy the style directly, but I do like the bizarre humanoid forms. In this, I am also influenced by authentic Pacific and pre-columbian art.

Atheist though I am, my compassion does tend to spill into inanimate objects, and I often feel sorry for things neglected, broken or needlessly thrown away. I think this is possibly where my fondness for anthromorphism comes from, but it doesn't do any good to think too deeply about your motivations.

Technique

Unlike my painting (which was at least partially developed at college and university), my carving skills are completely self-taught (“What's that you say?— You can’t tell?”). They come from a combination of experiment and library books.

When I first started, lots of books gave quite extensive lists of essential tools, and I read them thinking, “OK, well what if I say that I can’t even afford that.” So I began working with a bench-hook, junior hacksaw and file.

Obviously, you’re pretty limited in scope when using just a hacksaw and file, so my next purchase was a set of three ordinary chisels from Wilkinsons for £5. These gave me much more flexibilty and continue to serve me well, although their cutting edges are getting a bit wonky now. The main limitation with using flat chisels is that you can only really do exterior curves; you can’t scoop like you would with a spoon. My dad bought me some lovely gouges a few years ago, and these are great for that sort of thing, but my style is still heavily influenced by these early limitations. Over the years I have built up a collection of budget and second-hand tools to cover just about all of my needs. Some day I’d love to have a shed or garage, but for now I’ll have to make do with the kitchen of my terraced house.

All of my carvings are made from wood (as you can no doubt see), but in many cases I don't know what variety. Some is pine, from a local woodyard, and the better stuff is comprised of off-cuts and small logs.