In my current work, I attempt to get inside the mind and body of the eccentric. Eccentrics live in a vortex of creativity. They are of the future and the past, never the present. My sculptures are therefore constructed from old pieces of English furniture and materials that I alter and manipulate to reference characters, who freely indulge their inventiveness.

Eccentrics have appeared throughout history and manifest themselves in their behaviour, their choice of dress, their homes and their collections. They emerge in all walks of life from the very humble to aristocracy and even royalty, yet they are very much in a class of their own, a class in which the individual dictates the terms such as; lifestyle and the moral code by which they make valued judgments in their relationship and their interpretation of life.

Eccentrics are often admired for their courage in rebelling against the forces of convention. But they also have a dark side. They can be unpredictable and perverse and many end up being figures of tragedy. In my work I try to capture all of these things; their courage, their tragedy and their uniqueness.

I work with found materials that trigger memories of my childhood and the eccentrics I met who I remember as characters in a fairy tale. I am exploring the familiar through figuration, creating new personalities, based on those real life encounters with people like the poet and screen writer Jeremy Sanford, who was once described as ‘The Man who liked to paint his black toe nails red’. Every work is an exploration of my earliest feelings of shock and awe.

In this collection I am creating my own family of eccentrics. I do this by turning the carcass of an object into a three- dimensional portrait. I start each work by anthropomorphizing and adorning selected items of furniture. I bring them back to life, uniting them into one fictitious body, shape shifting them so that they become a presence in the space that they occupy.

The sculptures are exhibited in groups, in keeping with the traditional and established way of hanging family portraits. One might notice the similarities between the portraits and feel their innate presence carried by the patina and character of the materials. I want the viewer to feel they have walked into a space that captures the spirit of lineage, the past and the future. The juxtaposition of materials makes some of the pieces charming even childish, but there is an over shadowing peculiarity which is dark and twisted.

Making these sculptures is a way to revisit and exorcise memories. I don’t just try to capture the essence of a person in the portraits but also their ambiance, the mystery and feelings I had towards them or the world they came from.

• 

  She shot up at lunch and was on her back by pudding

• 

  School, the damning of the vulnerable

• • Back to top