ABOUT
SKETCHING IN CLAY - SCULPTING IN PENCIL
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Drawing and painting movement, particularly dance, is one of the most joyful ways I've found to work as an artist. I've studied dance both in participating and watching professionals working since childhood and in the last few years I've felt this work (which began as a fun way to practice drawing) develop in to something I actually considered worth offering up as finished artwork in itself, largely because it is where I feel at my most sincere. I had a mini exhibition just before the world locked down & then became very ill with what had been a sneaking chronic disease & needed to take time out to have surgeries. As 2023 ended, I prepared to get back to a new 'normal' & set myself the challenge of turning this thing of joy in to a full time job. I decided to brave my first attempt at capturing the subject in paint & sculpture, which brought immediate joy & (with some grind) has also grown in to something I feel happy with.
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I adore everything about the theatre, the velvet curtain and the costumery, the sense of occasion and the orchestra... in my work though, I strip that away to showcase the 'bare bones' of the expressive ability of the body. With this in mind, it became most important to work to show the amalgamation of a dancers technical ability, sense of movement and its result - a seemingly effortless jewel of a performance that, as it flashes in the light, expresses complex narrative and emotion powered by olympic athletic strength and discipline and the vision of/behind choreography.
The challenge to capture the exactness of beautifully choreographed bodies in motion, be that ballet, burlesque or even theatrical combat, is a niche delight to which I'm very much addicted. The work has become (at times quite literally) an enriching conversation with these illusive artists, who in their passionate dedication, illuminate life with their fierce attack and respect. They've shown me such surprising kindness and support.
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As I started to sculpt - all the while building these first sets of study - my perspective on what I needed to do started to ​run clearer like mud settling in a stream... My sketches were always working to carry the moving three-dimensional figure in line, & in the claim I was trying to faithfully capture what a dancer is doing/acheiving, whilst remaining etherial & un-fixed - 'sketched' I sketch in clay, I sculpt in pencil... this is the best way to capture the wonderful subjects.
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A BRUTALIST FAIRYTALE
REALISM & ROMANTICISM
As my work strives to convey both the strength & physicality as well as the ethereal sensory qualities of dance, I have found my entire ‘tastes’ work thusly. I am as spellbound by an Italian rationalist building or a Rick owens chair, as I am Odettes delicate white tutu, sometimes, the tulle even obstructs…
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If I were shying away from discussing myself, as we all tend to do, I could or should at least try to efficiently sum up my aims & aesthetics, & I find no better example of ‘perfection’ to aim for in my task, than the Alexander McQueen ‘shipwreck’ gown, (from his Irere collection ‘97) like all of McQueen’s work, this gown (‘dress’ ‘piece’… ‘work of art’…) is constructed with his simultaneously exquisite understanding of traditional tailoring & his affinity with cursed, abandoned, in his own words ’gothic romanticism’…. DETAILS ABOUT THE DRESS.why I love it.
In much the same way, I strive to discover something that is between worlds… a refined, skilled, studied art, which understands its subject, and though self-made, has prescribed and understood it’s ‘briefing’ attained a sort of self awareness and accomplishes its purpose with consistence and clarity, whilst also understanding that the subject being tussled with, is in part, immaterial (if only in its passing live performative format & certainly in its spirit/essence) these mystic qualities are equal in importance and certainly in beauty, and where it is constantly tempting to re-locate flesh and detail, i instead am working to reflect in detail those sensory immaterial/ fleeting elements .
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