I’ve been considering the idea of making some garden sculpture of late. It’s something that is constantly percolated at the back of my mind, but I’ve always had a slight reticence to commit to it.
I think it’s the fact that, although a lot of my functional design has a sculptural feel to it, it is in the end just that, functional.
That’s not to say that they are less valuable than pure sculpture. It’s just that because they do have a purpose, it gives me a starting point, something they are anchored to. “Form follows function” as Louise Sullivan famously said.
Sculpture is so free that I’ve always found it almost impossible to know where to start. And on the occasion when I’ve decided on a starting point, I’ve never been confident it will look good enough. And that, after all, is a very important consideration.
When you have the whole world to choose one, how do you decide where to begin?
But I’ve made a commitment. I’ve decided to grasp the nettle. I’ve got an idea that excites me. It draws together various themes that have run through my work for as long as I’ve been self-employed and it centres around a concept that I have been trying to express in various ways for many years.
I’ll explain more as and when I get time to make the various parts that will form the final piece, but it all starts with a foxglove. I hope you like it…