Work in Progress 22nd June 2021

There was a great deal of discussion about what these “cages” were and we spoke about how they could be containers but also were about freedom. For some they felt that they wanted to break them apart and bend them. Others felt they were symbolic of freedom and the general agreement was not not have items inside them. The original drawings showed them with body type shapes in them.

The sculpture below got the most positive feedback. Two people really thought it needed the two small characters on it and that they were dynamic. A few people didn’t like them at all. There was a general concensus that this was a finished piece of work. Quite a few thought the drawing was important and should remain.

This view shows the wall drawing on the left hand side. Paul Johnson thought I did not need literal representation of the body to imply the presence of my own. Mike Wright agreed with this. However I felt the drawing was more in keeping with the drawings around the sculptures and stones, and that I had just repeated this with using my own body. It really doesn’t represent my body, more an emerging line drawn around a subject.

Works ongoing around the studio, left hand shows some drawings made with wax and ink drawings around my body and feet. The right hand shows a wall drawing using graphite and tape.

Sketchbooks from February to June pages are all 150mm x 50mm

The three drawings above I had started by drawing around various rocks that I have used in the workshop I attended for London Sculpture Workshops. I have since used these three stones for more drawings.

The ceramics below were test pieces to research which materials I could used like the wax workshop to make casts of my squeeze. I then fired them and glazed in an underglaze to achieve this metallic look. The detail in the ceramic surface was of a high quality.

These images of the ceramics, the feedback was to make them as large as the screen had been in the presentation. I decided that the backgrounds were distracting from the ceramics themselves so will re-photograph them.

What the takeaways from this crit are

Have faith in your unknowing, working in uncertainty.

A multitude of readings of the work is good communicating to people in different ways. The new and the unfamiliar will not feel like you be willing to be open and assimilate that transformation.