Female

I was asked to make jewellery for a designer living in Italy. He specifically wanted something unique in bone, but left the designs up to me. I take the view that jewellery is miniature sculpture and have enjoyed making a few necklaces.

They are a combination of bone and a contrasting dark coral. In the past I have used coral for the eyes in some works and have made one small sculpture from an unusually large piece of coral. It is an octopus and can be seen at Abalone gallery in Hermanus.

The experimentation, in this case with the jewellery and with the new material, is a way I keep my art alive, exciting and challenging. I like to find the material and it is particularly satisfying if it is detritus, discarded or dumped. The coral and whale bone were picked up on walks along the beaches whilst holiday at Kenton-on-Sea.

The necklaces have been fun and perhaps a piece will end up on the catwalks of Milan. (Milano International Design and Furniture week from April 16th to 21st.)

My new work ‘Land Ho!’ is as much about landscape as it is about women and their hair. I was thinking about an earlier work on a maritime theme ‘The Harpooner’s Wife’. They are both made from whale bone. Art works are usually more than what is on the surface. (Pardon the pun.) Similarly in writing, novels and poems are crafted words that have theme and meaning. In these sculptures there are thoughts and links between whales, sea, land and (wo)men. The ideas I have explored have been investigated in books like Moby Dick whilst landscape and women is a well know combination in painting. How well it has been explored in sculpture I am not sure, but I it is a subject I enjoy and revisit from time to time.

I was asked to do an interview on SAFM Radio. It was on those indolent days between Christmas and New Year when nothing happens and the levels of toxins in your system are higher than usual. I had not checked my emails and missed the first opportunity. Then, when given a second chance at short notice, was unprepared for the long interview.

Towards the end of the conversation I was asked about my other interest of which I have several, including fishing, orchids and bird watching. Since I was grateful for the exposure, I thought I should give back a little so began to talk of my stock market interest and the radio program Moneyweb.

My wife deftly destroyed any sense smugness and self satisfaction I was wallowing in. I thought I had acquitted my self well until she pointed out that Moneyweb is on Radio 2000 and not on SAFM ! Radio is radio and I cannot correct the blunder, but I will be drinking water and eating lettuce leaves until I have detoxified and restored some clear thinking to my brain.