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Malibu Sparky.. 29/04/2013 0 Comments Malibu Sparky Capital punishment in California... Wood, zinc, copper, Mylar. 10 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" POA Malibu Sparky Malibu Sparky Malibu Sparky Malibu Sparky Add Comment Meat Landscape.. 24/04/2013 1 Comment Meat Landscape (Graphic)    What if, sometime in the first half of the 20th Century, someone sold a children's playset that had wooden blocks carved & painted to look like different cuts of meat..   They could have called it something like "Meat Landscape".. How cool would that have been.?.. Meat Landscape (Landscape) Meat Landscape Meat Landscape (Open End) Meat Landscape (Open) Meat Landscape (Graphic) Meat Landscape (Open Front) Meat Landscape (Graphic) Meat Landscape (Insert) Meat Landscape (Back) The box measures 14 1/2" x 10" x 5" The largest cut is 9 1/2" x 5" x 1 1/2" The smallest is 4 1/2 x 3" x 1 1/2"     I used thin recycled MDF for the sides of the box as I wanted a "cardboardy" feel but with more structural rigidity, the lid & base are made from recycled pine.  The labels on the box are printed on extremely lightweight tan coloured sugar paper (really not fun cutting that down & encouraging the printer not to eat it).  The entire box was first covered in a layer of brown craft paper, that was then painted & distressed, the labels were applied & then they were distressed using fine grit sandpaper & a coffee stain. The inside was painted in a contrasting dull orange.  The whole box was then waxed & buffed to a soft sheen.   The cuts of meat were carved from scrap pine, painted & then polished using the same wax finish as the box.  The salami is made from a fallen tree branch.                         Meat Landscape (Contents) POA 1 Comment (Wooden Toys) For Girls & Boys.. 21/04/2013 0 Comments (Wooden Toys) For Girls & Boys    I've always been bemused by superficial notions of what good parenting entails.. Despite countless studies showing that there are  zero benefits to eating 100% organic food the Middle Classes still insist on buying it.        It's long been held as true that a hand-crafted wooden toy will somehow instil a sense of social responsibility in a child, whilst a plastic doll will forever damn them to a life of closed minded underachievement.. I have some rather lush Atropa Bella-Donna in my garden, I can guarantee it's totally organic & struggling to support it's bumper crop of juicy black berries..   As with much in life it's a matter of appearances.. Forget the fact that if organic food was all that was produced half of the world would starve or that if every toy was an "artisanal " masterpiece then most kids would go without..   Modern marketing sucks but William Morris, whilst well meaning & brilliant, was a deluded snob.. (Wooden Toys) For Girls & Boys (Detail) (Wooden Toys) For Girls & Boys (Contents)  Here is a chance to own a set of 100% wooden "toys", coloured with lead free paint & sealed with a hand rubbed natural wax finish..  There are five large & five small pieces, held in a purpose built display...   The cleaver (Shown on right above) measures 14 3/4" X  3 3/4"        POA Add Comment The Palace.. 10/04/2013 0 Comments The Palace (Detail)  Miniatures fascinate me, so do vintage objects & I've always been drawn to the weirder examples of these things.. Hence The Palace..   The Victorians built wonderful miniatures of almost everything in their lives, from tiny working steam engines to the most elaborate doll  palaces.. From bridges to boats & beyond..  One of the most fascinating examples of these are the miniature store fronts they carved & crafted, of all of these the tiny but perfectly realised butcher's shops have always been a favourite of mine..   Hung with carved & painted wooden joints & cuts of meat they appear so incongruous in our world of polystyrene trays & shrink wrap.. The Palace (Detail)   Made as display models, although undoubtedly played with by a few lucky children, they would stand in the butcher's window & offer a tantalising glimpse of the produce stored in the cold boxes for the night..Their modern counterparts, the perfect renditions of fragrant Asian delicacies cast in glossy silicone,  gently fade in sunny restaurant windows the world over...   I made my meat market in reaction to the current Nightclub scene, not to moralise but more as an expression of my own snobbery when confronted with shiny but ultimately hollow culture..  The Palace The Palace (Lights On)   All of the joints are carved in pine & the strings of sausages, like their historical counterparts, are made from clay.. The "marble" counter is wooden, as is the rest of the construction. The piece also has a few small metal elements & two "adulterated" plastic farm animals.. 24" X 8 1/2" X 6"   POA Industrial Revolutions.. 30/03/2013 0 Comments   I had been thinking about making a Dodo for a while. I struggled a little with it as I didn't want it to be an overtly comic or tragic figure.. It's a Dodo after all & so there will always be a measure of both comedy & tragedy but I tried hard not to default to the obvious.. Industrial Revolutions   There is a certain pomposity in all of the images of Dodos I could find & it suggested the idea of a benevolent, if a little puffed up, Victorian industrialist..   Having him tower over small industrial town just followed, as did the idea of mounting all of it on a child's Pull-along toy..   The base has a simple clicker built into it. A small toothed wheel on the rear axle flicks a thin metal tongue as it moves forward..    It is entirely constructed from reclaimed Pine & Cedar with small metal elements, except for the wooden wheels which, after a few different approaches, I decided to buy & alter to fit the theme..  The string emerging from the factory chimney is cotton, finished with a heavy wooden "Wrecking" ball on the end.. Industrial Revolutions (Detail) Industrial Revolutions (Detail)   The piece is 20 1/2" X 15" X 5" It's painted in acrylics, the colours hopefully suggesting the red & green of the Victorian Age of Steam.. It's  sealed with a hand buffed wax finish.. I have aged it a little but to a lesser degree that some of my other pieces..              POA Add Comment Woodwedge.. 22/03/2013 0 Comments Woodwedge   I dreamt about making this piece.. That's really weird & quite exciting, tapping into the creative recesses of my mind, at least it would be if it wasn't a pun.  I dreamt of making a pun.. I don't really know how to feel about that. It would seem that my subconscious is not quite as refined as I would like to think.. I still feel it was worth the effort, it's fun..  I went for the scallop design as it is an actual design on Jasperware & fits nicely with my Maritime location.. Woodwedge Woodwedge The piece was cut from a piece of recycled Pine & the handle is formed from two small bone beads, one carved to represent a skull.. It measures 6 1/2" X 3 1/4" X 1 1/2"  POA Add Comment Trust Me.. 14/03/2013 0 Comments Trust Me 1927-1945  The Silent Generation or Traditionalists 1946-1964 Baby Boomers 1965-1983 Gen X or the Busters 1984- 2002 Gen Y or the Millennials 2003-  Gen Z or the Digital Generation ---------------- The piece measures  23 1/2" x 5 1/2" x 5 1/2"              POA Trust Me  The approaching end of the Baby Boomer dynasty & the succession of Generation X has me thinking..  Gen X the lost generation, the Punk generation that paid & continues to pay for all of the excesses of their Baby Boomer Parents..  What with Vietnam, The Cold War & countless other global tantrums it turns out that all of that free love wasn't free after all, it wasn't all that loving either..  I really don't blame the Post War Party People, hell if I'd been around I would probably have bought into the hype along with everybody else.. At least we still have the music.. Trust Me (Detail) Trust Me (Detail)  It's 100% reclaimed wood construction, painted, distressed & sealed with a hand rubbed wax finish..             Add Comment The Diaspora.. 02/03/2013 1 Comment The Diaspora   Once upon a time (two weeks ago) a very kind & imaginative friend saw hidden potential in a (pretty ugly) junk store lamp & very generously gave it to me to operate on.  I've spent the last two weeks dismantling, reconfiguring & re-imagining it as the base for a flying silver ship..  The faux gilt ormolu & overall geometry said Regency so that's the feel I attempted to pastiche..  The ship itself has a reclaimed wood core (An off-cut from a broken fencepost) & is clad in a reasonably heavy zinc foil. I love the look of traditional clinker built boats so I built up the zinc in "planks" in that configuration..  The same foil has been used to form the wings & the "silver" mounts on the base, the "sea" on top of the gold dish is chased in slightly heavier gauge aluminium..   The drive post (?) for the wings is copper wire, the sails are aluminium & the ties for the sails are made from narrow brass ribbon.. The ropes I've made using galvanized steel florists' wire that I've doubled up & spun using a power drill..  The base appears to be cast zinc (Pot Metal)..   The entire piece is made from recycled materials, offcuts & scraps. Absolutely nothing was purchased to create it.. The Diaspora The Diaspora The Diaspora (Detail)   I've tried to make the engraving on the title plate look period to the piece, whatever that is.. I love the scratch engraving on silver from the C16th & C17th, when effort, decoration & design were considered to be as or more important than execution.. Faking naivety can prove disastrous but I'm happy with the result.. Raising & lowering the lever on the front of the base (Made from the original lamp's finial) causes the wings to flap..      26" x 12" x 11"          POA Drones.. SOLD 17/02/2013 0 Comments Drones (Click Me)    Drones could be a biting satirical work addressing U.S. military policy but is, in actuality, just a guy on top of an unfeasibly tall step ladder throwing paper planes..   It's made from 100% recycled wood & paper & stands 27" tall by x 3 1/2" x 5"..    I'm happy with this piece, it's fun & it makes my point (Not that it matters.)..   He's the smallest Limberjack I've made to date &, bizarrely, he took exactly the same amount of time to make as a full sized one.. Drones POA Drones Add Comment The End Of The Penny Dreadfuls.?. 14/02/2013 0 Comments After making around fifty of these I've decided to take a break from them..   I love them, they sell & they achieve everything I wanted them to but I need to work on some other pieces for a while..   Never say never. They are so much fun to make & they make people smile so I'm sure I'll revisit them soon enough but for now what's left is what's available..   There are a few available currently at the Pavia Gallery and a couple are available at the Secord Gallery..   You can view all of them & see what's still available HERE..   If you have a specific idea for a commission I will always consider it.. Add Comment March Of The Swiss Soldiers 10/02/2013 0 Comments March Of The Swiss Soldiers   It's a rocking horse with a cello for a body. It's made entirely from recycled wood (Pine & Cedar) with galvanized wire & horse hair details..   I put a row of buildings beneath the horse to suggest monumental scale..   It's called March Of The Swiss Soldiers as that's the finale of The William Tell Overture that was used as the theme for The Lone Ranger television show..   The horse is a rocking horse because, other than my obsession with rocking horses, it speaks to the snobbery of some "classical" music aficionados harbour toward we hoi polloi.. I realise that The William Tell Overture is not actually considered classical music but that just continues the conceit..    The tiny town & the suggested Trojan Horse perspective is there to round out the argument.  I'm interested in the way that classical music finds such a solid foothold in popular culture, despite the best efforts of many elitists.. The majority of us first hear classical music on TV advertisements.. March Of The Swiss Soldiers    There is a (relatively) famous quote that an intellectual is "a man who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger."    One of the dumbest lines ever committed to print.. It stands 17" tall and measures 22" wide by 6" deep   POA March Of The Swiss Soldiers (Detail) Night Of The Long Knives.. 13/01/2013 0 Comments Night Of The Long Knives   Two for the price of one (nearly)..  This piece was a struggle.. I made three different versions of the heads. No matter what I tried I wasn't satisfied. I wanted to suggest masks but without actually dressing the pieces in masks.. Night Of The Long Knives    Third time was the charm, I hit on the idea of truncating the heads. This gave me the mask feel I wanted without the fussiness of the extra elements..   I'm happy with the finished result but frustrated that it took me so long to get there..   I used the same technique to build up the heads as I used in "A Good Coat Of Looking At", Polymer clay & acrylic filler over wood, but these figures have carved wooden hands as opposed to the polymer clay ones in the earlier piece.. Night Of The Long Knives   The rest of the figures are all reclaimed wood construction with wire joints at the elbow & knee & wooden dowels at the shoulders & hips.. Night Of The Long Knives I forgot to measure the piece before it found itself a temporary home at the Secord Gallery.. It measures 22" x 15" x 9 1/2" Polychrome Reclaimed Wood, Polymer Clay & small Metal elements.. POA Old Gods.. 13/12/2012 0 Comments Old Gods    An enormous hand reaches down from the clouds towards a carnival tent..   The hand itself appears old & work worn & is covered in American Traditional tattoos.. Where one would expect to read HATE across the knuckles is the word EAST.. There is also a tattooed anchor & various other traditional motifs..    The tall, thin box measures 14" x 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" & is painted, distressed, waxed & polished.. The front window has been "dusted" on the inside.. POA Add Comment Wonderland... 13/12/2012 0 Comments Wonderland Wonderland (Detail)   This is another of the 5 1/2" anatomical figures. It's been painted with contrasting metallic flake lacquer.   I love these pocket sized anatomy mannequins but I know that some will have a problem with their inherently "graphic" nature. In an attempt to soften their appeal I thought a little glitter may go a long way..   I've "frosted" the front glass to form another oval vignette.. The pine box has been stained, painted, distressed & then sealed in a hand rubbed wax finish. It measures  6" X 8 1/2" X 5 1/4" POA Add Comment The Liar.. 05/12/2012 0 Comments The Liar       The box has been stained & then painted, waxed, repainted & then distressed & waxed again. Like all of the recent boxes it measures 6" X 8 1/2" X 5 1/4" POA The Liar (Detail)     This box has theatre curtains at the front with a skeleton performing centre stage.. The figure is dressed as a clown & is holding a miniature tin sword.. There is a gallery around the stage &  patterned paper behind the skeleton..  Add Comment Berry.. 05/12/2012 0 Comments Berry Berry (Detail)    More reverse painted glass, in gold this time.   The crow is tasting a berry against a painted red & black background depicting a pine forest under a red sky.   The bird is housed in a pine box, stained, painted, distressed & then stained again. It's sealed in a hand rubbed wax finish & measures  6" X 8 1/2" X 5 1/4" POA Natural History.. (SOLD) 22/11/2012 0 Comments Natural History Rabbits Natural History (Detail)   Some rabbits staring at a bear in a glazed cabinet...   Seriously, that's it..  The wooden box has been stained, painted, distressed & then stained again. It's sealed in a hand rubbed wax finish & measures  6" X 8 1/2" X 5 1/4" POA Add Comment White Elephant.. 16/11/2012 0 Comments White Elephant     There's not much of a hidden message in this piece, not as many layers to peel back..  What there is is intentionally saccharine.. I hate the fact that animals are made to perform, we condemn dancing bear owners in far flung climes & then queue to watch elephants, big cats, monkeys & all manner of other animals forced to perform utterly alien acts for our "entertainment"...  We realise it's wrong to visit psychiatric hospitals & gawk at the inmates, or stare horrified at people with disabilities & deformities in a seaside board-walk tent, but we need to feel superior & animals are our last chance for a fix...    It's the Freak Show mentality alive & well in polite society..   Rant over...   The elephant itself is a repositioned & repainted Dime Store toy balancing on a painted wooden ball. The backdrop is made from painted & stained heavy cartridge paper & the front glass is reverse painted in black with an oval vignette.. White Elephant (Detail)   The white pine box has been stained, painted, distressed & then stained again. It's sealed in a hand rubbed wax finish & measures  6" X 8 1/2" X 5 1/4" POA White Elephant (Detail) The Soldier's Heart.. 01/11/2012 0 Comments   Painted & distressed miniature cabinet on a plinth with reverse painted glass door containing a doll representing a Napoleonic veteran wearing a handmade canvas & leather straitjacket with copper buckles..    The base is painted with the title of the piece in a "nostalgic" typeface..  Hopefully it looks like it belongssomewhere in the first third of the 20th century.. The Soldier's Heart (Base)   The gallery has ten micro LED lights set into it. They don't actually flash but I thought it would be easier to use a GIF (Who doesn't like an animated GIF!?) to show on & off..   The battery box & switch is all contained inside the gallery & accessed through the trapdoor set in the top.. The Soldier's Heart (Gallery Lights Detail) Please consider donating to help our Veterans   The lettering on the door is reverse painted, in red with gold drop shadows.. The Soldier's Heart    The whole piece is finished in a hard, hand burnished wax.. Again, the photos suck, sorry.. Cabinet is 14" X 7 1/2" X 3 1/2"  The entire piece measures 24 1/2" X 5" X 9" POA Add Comment 1918 (The Epidemic) 16/10/2012 0 Comments 1918 (The Epidemic)   Not much to say about this one... The box itself is a fair bit larger than the other "standard" Penny Dreadfuls I've made.. 6 X 8 1/2 X 5 1/4..  It's the 1918 epidemic of the, so called, Spanish Influenza..  It contains an ass with a human skull for a head, wearing a top hat. I've tried very hard to get the painted tree to look authentic, as in a 1950s (ish) diorama painting authentic..   Iron railings in the front & a plank fence in the back..  Between 20 and 50 million died, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. Using the higher estimate of 50 million people, 3% of the world's population (which was 1.86 billion at the time[8]) died of the disease. Some 500 million, or 27%, were infected. The H1N1 Virus 1918 (Detail) Add Comment On The Campaign Trail.... (SOLD) 05/10/2012 0 Comments Campaign Trail Another, different format, Penny Dreadful... Five figures, four animals & some trees.. Campaign Trail (Detail) Campaign Trail (Detail) Campaign Trail (Detail) The skeletons are 6" tall (when standing upright) & the box measures : 9"H x  3.5"D x 26.5"W POA On This Day.. 1812, 1874 & 1913... 21/09/2012 0 Comments   These guys are trouble..  I originally had all three of these figures mounted in the same box frame, side by side..  I liked the piece but I think I was in pretty much alone in that regard..   They began when my eldest daughter, Alice, came home with a throw-away dollar store anatomical model kit for me.. "I saw this & had to get it for you" she said..  I was grinning from ear to ear & couldn't wait to start "fixing" it..  Initially I thought I would just trim it up, repaint it & leave it at that..  Well one thing lead to another & I ended up making the middle piece, "1874"..   I went out the following weekend & bought the other two kits & set about creating the original three figure piece (Then titled "The Age Of Heroes")...   After an unsuccessful stint at the gallery Pavia I spent the the last two months staring at this piece as it hung next to my bed..  Eventually I decided that the only way to approach it was to dismantle it & remake three individual pieces...   I'm doubtful that these will sell, even in their new format, but I'm OK with that.  I've spent so long staring at them that I'd probably miss them if they went..   The last piece is actually a self portrait (although I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the inside).. 1812 1874 1913 The original, & now defunct "The Age Of Heroes"... The Age Of Heroes (Destroyed) Add Comment The Fall.. 21/09/2012 0 Comments The Fall Giant Penny Dreadful!..  This piece is a revisit to a piece I made about a year ago, "The Fall of Icarus", although the original take was only a third of the size of this one..  It's unusual for me to want to go back & recycle an idea but I really like the notion of playing with the cultural & chronological setting of a piece (Think of many of the renaissance allegorical paintings in contemporary dress) & Icarus is a favourite of mine..  It's roughly 18" X 24" (Didn't measure it..) & constructed in the same way as all of the early Penny Dreadfuls.. Old picture frame & a box built to fit it (All recycled of course)..    Memories of provincial museums, visited on school trips thirty five years ago, & the meticulously crafted dioramas, filled with accretions of dust & mummified insects, are the driving inspiration behind all of the Penny Dreadfuls.. Like all art some pieces are more successful than others but with this piece I feel I've come closest to achieving what I intended.  A cross between a tiny Bronze age village & a Victorian vitrine, crammed with taxidermied birds..  The Fall (Detail) The Fall (Detail)    There are five skeletons in all. The central tableau is comprised of the fallen Icarus & the two figures attempting to rescue him by way of a long ladder.  In the bottom left is a clown figure clutching a chicken & on the right is a second clown flying a kite, the string of which appears to be seriously hampering the rescue attempt..   I try not to get too "clever" with my work in general but these little frozen scenes are a convenient way for me to clear my head of the little distractions, I put them to work rescuing people, posing for the viewer or just pantomiming various tasks.. It keeps them busy & stops them bothering me.. This is the original piece on the theme of Icarus..  I'm still fond with it & I know it went to a good home..  This new one is a very different beast but, obviously, there are a lot of similarities.. Icarus (Sold) As of writing The Fall is available from Pavia POA.. The Come From Away.. 23/08/2012 0 Comments The Come From Away (Detail)   Yet another Limberjack... This one is slightly different as it has a composite head, wood with polymer clay features, and polymer clay hands.. It's the same technique I used on the House headed man below but this figure also has resin doll eyes..  He has a corolla of bird houses around his head and an elongated, beak-like nose (as well as a metal beak on twine around his neck)...   Whilst he has the air of The Crowman about him I wanted him to echo the land around here so I chose the Blue Jay.. We have plenty of crows in the woods here but the Blue Jay has come to represent the differing wildlife here, in my new home..    "Come From Away" is a term in general use in The Maritimes and refers to anyone who lives here but wasn't actually born here.. It's both a reminder of the pervasiveness of provincial attitudesbut it also speaks to the great sense of pride Maritimers have for their provinces..   As a Londoner, it's not as if I haven't encountered the same attitudes in my own country.. Anyone whose moved to the West Country can attest to that...  Using a bird motif seemed fitting in a piece dealing with migration.. The birdhouses echoing the brightly coloured houses clustered around the coves, bays and inlets here in Nova Scotia.. The Come From Away The Come From Away(Detail)   His shabby Topper is constructed using heavy cartridge paper and he's sporting a Blue Jay feather in his hat band... The Come From Away (Detail) The entire piece is 25" tall by 9" wide by 8" deep.. POA Add Comment A Good Coat Of Looking At.. 07/08/2012 0 Comments A Good Coat Of Looking At (Detail) This is a portrait piece, I hope it bears at least a passing resemblance to it's subject..  Again, the photographs are pretty awful but I'm finding it harder & harder  to photograph the stuff I make..   The house headed figure is sitting on a three legged stool at a drawing table, on which are engineering diagrams.. He's clutching a pencil & resting his foot on a wooden sphere.. As well as the sphere he's using as a footstool there are other objects scattered about the checker board floor, another globe, a boat, an apple, houses & a red cone shape.. The back right hand corner has an architectural arch, it could also read as a fireplace.. A Good Coat Of Looking At (Detail) I wonder if anyone will guess who this distinguished chap is.. He took me a long time to make, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the finished piece to look like & I was keen to fit all of the various elements together.. A Good Coat Of Looking At (Detail) A Good Coat Of Looking At A Good Coat Of Looking At (Detail) A Good Coat Of Looking At (Detail) As always he's made from (at least 95%) recycled materials (with a little polymer clay thrown in for good measure)..  Base is 40cm X 28cm & he's roughly 50cm tall..  POA A Lot Going On Means Not A Lot Going On... 01/08/2012 0 Comments New work coming soon... The Elephant's Dream.. (SOLD)20/06/2012 The Elephant's Dream (Detail)  This was a nightmare to photograph, not helped by my third rate photography skills..  It's difficult to see but he "floats" three inches in front of the Big Top background, supported by a steel rod (You can just make it out in the detail on the left)..   His wings are made from two Sleeman beer cans, cut out & chased..Because the metal is so thin they tremble a little.  The figure itself is carved from a piece of reclaimed pine & fallen branches..   The figure is 18 1/2" tall & the back disk is 10 1/2" in diameter, The wingspan is 15".. POA   I'm fond of the big brassy buttons... The Elephant's Dream The Elephant's Dream (Detail) Flat Earth (Wormwood)...14/06/2012 Flat Earth (Wormwood) (Detail)   This piece is supposed to be theatrical whilst sticking with the whole folk vibe..  It's a refectory table with a small town on it. Fires rage below & above The All Seeing Eye looks on from the firmament..   I wanted it to be ambiguously allegorical but I'm not really sure how successful the ambiguity worked out for me...  Flat Earth (Wormwood)    I really like painted toy wooden blocks in the shape of buildings & wanted to bring that idea into this work.. There are 12 buildings in total.. Flat Earth (Wormwood) (Detail)    The flag is the 1865 36 star flag & was current at the end of the American civil war & was used to drape the coffin of Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in April of that year..   The cloud & the hills are intentionally flat (as in theatre flats), the same goes for the flames... It's all recycled materials..  In some ways it continues the themes I visited in The piece "1865" (below)... It stands 27 1/2" High by 16 1/2" Wide.. POA 1865..08/06/2012   This piece was great to make & very satisfying in that it does what I wanted it to do (at least it does for me)..   In a nutshell it's Lincoln's vision for a United States growing out from his top hat at some point after his assassination...  His ideas proliferating outwards into themiasma of post civil war America..   The figure is carved from both reclaimed wood & fallen tree branches & is another of the Jig doll style bodies.. The "All Seeing Eye" & the pyramid are both made from chased alumin(i)um & the hat band is a piece of biscuit tin.. The flags are painted cotton canvas & the tree is a section of... well, tree..   The figure stands 45cm high & the whole piece is 85cm high (Approx 18" or 43").. POA    Abraham Lincoln"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure." The Ministry..08/06/2012   The title of this piece could be taken on a number of levels.. There's the obvious political take & the maybe less obvious religious angle..    In fact the inspiration for this piece was a documentary I watched on Winston Churchill during WWII.. The drab grey & green corridors & the abject utility of the fixtures & fittings in these surroundings are an aesthetic that has always appealed to me.   The flex on the light fitting is a modern cable & shouted a little too loud so I covered it with a length of tea stained boot lace. The lamp holder is an antique Bakelite fitting..  The box itself is a reclaimed pine board that I've painted, distressed & finished in wax..  It's backed with a section of heat exchanger from a scrapped refrigerator I found & the front grill is from a barbecue someone had left at the side of the road.. It's 40cm x 20cm (16" x 8" approx) POA The Ministry The Ministry (Lit) Waxing & Waning...05/06/2012 Waning (Detail) 2012  I finished this guy the other day & he pulls together a lot of different ideas & materials I've been working with recently..  His head is carved in relief & sits on a jointed body reminiscent of an old Jig Doll or Limberjack..  The crown is cut from an off-cut of Alumin(i)um flashing & I've chased it from the reverse using a ballpoint pen.. I painted the flag onto cotton canvas & the flagpole is made from a whittled stick..   For some reason I feel a real connection to him.. I like the work I make, for the most part, & don't consider a piece finished unless I have some connection to it but this guy is different.. I wanted a measure of humanity in this piece & I think I've achieved it to some degree.. All of this feels horribly immodest as I write it...  I want him to sell, because I think he deserves it on some level, but I think I'll miss him...    He sits 56cm (22") high to the top of his crown..   POA Waning 2012 Tipping Point... (SOLD)04/06/2012Tipping Point 2012  By the sixteenth century chairs were becoming commonplace but many still perched on a stool..    My new chair is based (loosely) on an antique oak chair I picked up from the side of the road, it had suffered a bad break to one of it's rear legs & had been left to it's fate.. It was a relatively quick fix & it currently serves as a rather wonderful lamp table.. I say loosely based as I took the liberty of altering the stretcher design in favour of a pattern I'd seen some time ago on a chair in junk shop..    It's entirely constructed from scrap wood, with a carved seat & of mortised construction.. The wood was stained with a strong coffee mix & them waxed & polished. It was then painted a chalky matt white & carefully distressed..    The chair itself stands 26cm high (10 1/4") when standing flat & the base is 24cm (9 1/2") in diameter..  POA 0 Comments Add Comment 0 Comments Add Comment 0 Comments Add Comment 0 Comments Add Comment 0 Comments Add Comment 0 Comments  I've been thinking about making a chair for a while now.. They're fascinating objects, we can sit on practically anything with a flat top, barrels & boxes, rocks or even the floor if we're pushed, but the world decided on the chair..  As something designed for as simple a task as resting one's rear end the chair is a complicated beast & available in a myriad of designs,  variations, colours & materials...   The chair is set at an angle, as if it's about to tip backwards.. I considered placing a figure on it, windmilling it's arms as if to stay upright, but after finishing the chair I decided it worked well all on it's own.. The base it teeters on is made of narrow slats, mounted to a backing board, & painted & distressed to suggest an antique carnival attraction.. Why? I have no idea.. The Chronicle Herald..24/05/2012Triton, a Lesson In Common Sense...22/05/2012Triton Tin,cotton canvas, net, paint & polychromed driftwood. 37 3/4" x 8" x 7" It could have been so much worse. The wood could have bounced back & hit me in the face, it could have jumped my hand into the blade or at the very least it could have broken my finger.. It's been 30 years since my Dad shared that piece of advice with me and now, all these years later, I've heard him..  He may well read this & if he does, & decides to mention it, I'll take my lumps with good grace and, thankfully, all of my fingers...  The big guy in the crown is available for purchase through the Secord Gallery.. Triton Triton, a merman, demigod of the sea; he was the son of the sea god, Poseidon, and his wife, Amphitrite. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, Triton dwelt with his parents in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. Sometimes he was not particularized but was one of many Tritons. He was represented as human down to his waist, with the tail of a fish. 0 Comments    Elissa Barnard at The Chronicle Herald wrote a very gracious piece about me today..  Add Comment 0 Comments  I couldn't tell you how many times my father told me to only use tools for their intended purpose.. A hundred times... Two hundred times.?..   What I can say for certain is that I ignored him. I've ignored this sage advice for three decades, countless broken drill bits, snapped blades, bent screwdrivers & numerous near misses...  A couple of weeks ago I was making the guy on the left.. Now I know that making art isn't deep sea diving or coal mining & I am aware that the ability to get up every day & make art is wonderful privilege... but.. making art (for me at least) can be physically tiring & is mentally exhausting..   I'd been working on him for eleven hours straight, loads of carving, designing the arms & jointing them.. I know, poor me.. I should have stopped & picked it up the next day but the creative madness was on me & I just kept working..   I had to trim the torso where it joins the tail, it's maple driftwood & as hard as iron, so I thought a quick chop on the mitre saw would do the trick..   As soon as the blade hit the curved and uneven wood it jammed, throwing the work back into the fence & crushing my finger.. It hurt enough to light fireworks behind my eyes & elicit a stream of expletives.. I was too terrified to look but, after about 30 seconds of squeezing and cursing, I did...   I'd bruised the nail.. No blood, no broken bones & no mangled mess, just a bruise..  It throbbed for two days straight & complained every time I used it for over a week.. At the moment the fingertip is still numb but it is still there..