The desire to be a sculptor struck me with one of those rare lighted bulb flashes of realisation. At 18, I was interested in either painting, like my mother, or emulating my father by pursuing some area of three-dimensional technical design until, on a college visit to the Whitechapel Art gallery’s British Sculpture in the Twentieth Century, I encountered the most stunningly sensual ‘Crouching Figure’ by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. It was safely, and frustratingly, contained within a sealed glass box. My desire to touch the surface of the piece became almost an obsession, one with which I dealt by forming clay into multiple sensual small-scale sculptural pieces that I could hold.

Considering that I am predominantly visual and tactile in my appreciation of the world it is not surprising that I produce work that appeals to both senses. It is perhaps coincidental that, despite MA studies that exposed me to a broad range of post-18th century western art, the artists whose work I have found most interesting and appealing visually and contextually have been from that groundbreaking early 20^th century period of European art: I am particularly drawn to the complex fragmentation of Analytical Cubism, the geometric, overlapping forms of Constructivism and the machine aesthetic of Futurism.

I aim to produce work that is sensual, generally contemporary in nature and less overtly political than these earlier movements although I am aware that once again, machine-inspired and particularly fossil fuel consuming vehicle-inspired ‘Cyborg’ type visual references are becoming controversial, given our necessarily increasing eco-centric view of the world. However, I mainly produce work that conveys something of my subject’s personality, interests or surroundings; I am fascinated by how, in my experience of contemporary society, people often use such things as a form of armour protecting them from closer personal scrutiny and this includes the ownership of expensive or high performance vehicles as explored in the Alpha Male series.