Wood

Ghost

May 7th, 2010 | Posted in Gallery, Wood | No Comments
Tags: Abstract, Head, Human, Sculpture, Wood

2010 | Ghost | 730mm x 550mm x 460mm

Shoot the Messenger

May 7th, 2010 | Posted in Gallery, Wood | No Comments
Tags: Abstract, Head, Human, Sculpture, Wings, Wood

2010 | Shoot the Messenger| 650mm x 250mm x 420mm

Change

May 7th, 2010 | Posted in Newsletter | 8 Comments
Tags: Abstract, Head, Human, Newsletter, Wings, Wood

Forty years ago this letter would have served to remind you that you had forgotten to put ten rand in an envelope with a birthday card for me. However, ten rand does not buy what it used to and that was before the Post Office started confiscating any money sent in the post. Besides, now that I am a grown up, it seems, regrettably, that I am restricted to socks and underpants as acceptable presents.

If it were not for its continued monopoly and a few rand still in my Post Office Bank account I imagine the Post Office would cease to exist. I write emails and I imagine almost everyone else does even if they, like the snail mail, are not always delivered. Some things never change. Julius Malema reminds me of P.W. Botha waving his finger and telling the press how to behave. The tyre burning and police shooting at those who riot are indistinguishable from the images that I saw in the press in the Apartheid era. Perhaps, the more things change the more they remain the same.

Shoot the Messenger made in wild plum wood could have been an Apartheid era subject. In 1980’s, when I went to Rhodes and P.W. Botha was in power, I preferred not to read newspapers. However, my journalist friends made me aware of their frustrations and the press’s prescriptions and limitations. They were disabled and could not give the full story. This work is pertinent to threats to a free press and does have something of the horror and angst of that apartheid era. Specifically, the photographs of “terrorists” shot in the head that I was shown at that time. Those images are now part of the arsenal of this artist who conveys the concerns of this new era, or as some like to call it “the new regime”.

Ghost is part of my new regime which is much the same as the old one. Except mine has taken to heart all the lessons learnt from all I have done since the eighties. It has been made with more knowledge, more skill, and more determination than before. I think that this work achieves many things I strive to attain. It is a composition that is both organic and structured, a sort of ordered chaos. It has an exciting texture, surface, line and form. I don’t know the name of this wood but I have previously worked with it and know it as “good wood” with an unusual colour and fantastic grain. The shape of this work and its striations reminds me of Roy Lichtenstein’s “brushstroke” works, some of which he made in the bad old eighties.

There are a few things from bad old days I would like to re-instate like the ten rand that my granny used to send on my birthdays. I think it should be enough to buy me one of those big black Wilson’s toffees which would be better than socks or underpants. There are a lot of things that make me happy in our brave new world. I love email as you do not have to wait two weeks for a reply. The web is great for research and if you are looking for a different opinion you can read a newspaper from almost anywhere in the world. The spelling and grammar checks on my computer are great for writing as I can neither spell nor read my own hand writing.

As if to illustrate the benefits of our new world I have recently sold a work that is going to a gallery in China and had an email from a gallery in London interested in my work. In the bad old days sending work to China would have been consorting with the communist enemy and, being poor, I would have had to give it to them. In those days Maggie Thatcher’s London was capitalist and it was a time of economic ascendance for the British. Now, the Chinese are our financially well off, almost capitalist, friends, whilst our poor, almost communist, friends in London have been hard hit by the recession and are concerned about the prices of my work.

It is not that I am a supporter of either Maggie or Mao but at least in those days I still had friends and my birthday was remembered. This year I only received one birthday card which was from my Mum. I had to remind my wife and children of the important event and by then it was too late for the usual socks and underpants and even if you sent it, there was no ten rand in the post.

Regards
Carl

Jump

January 8th, 2010 | Posted in Gallery, Wood | No Comments
Tags: Figure, Human, Male, Wood

2009 | Jump | 750mm x 390mm x 130mm

Sensual Soul

November 30th, 2009 | Posted in Gallery, Wood | No Comments
Tags: Female, Figure, Human, Wood

2009 | Sensual Soul | 1190mm x 370mm x 200mm

Diver

November 2nd, 2009 | Posted in Gallery, Wood | No Comments
Tags: Figure, Fish, Human, Wood

2009 | Diver | 1010mm x 580mm x 120mm

False fish

November 2nd, 2009 | Posted in Gallery, Wood | No Comments
Tags: Animal, Fish, sea, Wood

2009 | False fish | 1050mm x 2350mm x 230mm

Heads, Ned Kelly, Sidney Nolan and stolen cars

October 7th, 2009 | Posted in Gallery, Newsletter | 7 Comments
Tags: Wood

I am currently reading about Ned Kelly. He is an Australian folk hero, and the equivalent of the Englishman Robin Hood or the American Jesse James. Most societies have this kind of peoples’ hero. Since there are aspects to the story that remind me of South Africa, like the unrelenting poverty and the corrupt police, it has made me wonder who our folk hero is.

The reason I initially took an interest in Ned Kelly is because I enjoy the paintings of Sidney Nolan. He seems to have had great fun painting a diverse range of subjects that at first appear unreal. However, the work is usually rooted in real people, places and events. He has also managed to explore and express that which is beyond the tangible in his paintings. Kelly and his gang is often the subject of his work, but he was especially interested in Ned’s helmeted head as it delivers content on many levels.

Like many artists I feel compelled to make a “head” every now and again. I have heard some say that a head is a head is a head, and if they mean it is boring or has no content, I disagree. For me it is a vehicle to express oneself and if it is a known and limited form, it is also unlimited in the possible variations of that form. Familiar and yet open to interpretation and invention.

My new images, “Exhale” and “Wild Man of the Woods” (now at the Gallery on the Square) are different from one another and for now they have fulfilled that compulsion.

Perhaps it is the wrong time for me to be reading Kelly’s story, as the person who stole my car is making it difficult for me to recognise Ned’s good points and any reason for him to be a champion of the people. At present, my heroes are likely to be bounty hunters and those who impose Shariah law. I am lacking in sympathy and am tired of the redistribution of my pittance. I find myself wanting the same swift “justice” meted out to Ned Kelly for my thief. His head in a noose!

Forgive me for my bloody thoughts, but this is the 6th car that I have had stolen.

Exhale

October 7th, 2009 | Posted in Gallery, Wood | 2 Comments
Tags: Bust, Female, Head, Human, Wood

2009 | Exhale | 650mm x 1270mm x 220mm

Wild man of the woods

October 7th, 2009 | Posted in Gallery, Wood | No Comments
Tags: Bust, Male, Wood

2009 | Wild man of the wood | 800mm x 350mm x 370mm

By any other name, not the same

June 27th, 2009 | Posted in Newsletter | No Comments
Tags: banana boy, Wood

Men from KwaZulu-Natal are sometimes referred to as a Banana Boys. The flora that is most often seen and commonly mistaken for bananas is in fact the Strelitzia Nicolai plant. However the name, Strelitzia Boy, would not have the impact that Banana Boy has, as it does not have the connection with our local rugby team nor does it suggest virility in the way a banana does.

Name changes are big part of our national debate. The change by our local rugby team from Banana Boys to Sharks has been one that moves from that of virility and potency to one that suggests predatory aggression and perhaps that is what was required. Some of our national teams changed their name and emblem from Springboks to Proteas. That seems to me to have taken the balls out of the buck and replaced the spring with a pirouette. This, I imagine, is good for the women’s teams even if the protea along with the strelitzia are the dykes of the flower world. Perhaps it is all part of a gender equality programme but it is not exactly the kind of name that will drive fear into the heart of an opponent on a rugby field unless you are allergic to pollen or fear being hit with a posy.

Names in art are important as the title of a work is a key to unlocking the meaning or meanings contained therein. It can provide a perspective and directs one’s understanding of the work. It is a point of departure from which the work of art will either build on or deconstruct its significance. It is also one of my weaknesses. Perhaps I am too close to and caught up with the making of the sculpture as all too often I neglect spending enough time thinking about and titling my work appropriately. In haste I sometimes give a working title that is poorly thought out and then occasionally, to my dismay, the title sticks.

The title ‘Banana Boy’ has been more carefully thought out. Perhaps this is because I have been working on it since we returned from our holiday in Australia a year ago and so I have had the time to think about it. The name is appropriate in part because the work is made from Strelitzia leaves, but also because I have become a Banana Boy. The title suggests that the subject is about a person living in KwaZulu-Natal and hints at the virility of this person. However the tripped/balanced composition of the figure and the boat itself suggest that there are some anxieties about living in and or leaving this place. It also puts the virility of the man in doubt.

Fortunately for sculptures that have been poorly titled their names sometimes have a life of their own. Buyers of work sometimes impose their own names, whilst galleries have changed titles as they think it will improve sales and even artists rename their works. An example of an artwork that has had its title changed is the ‘Night Watch’ by Rembrandt. It was first called ‘The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch’ and no matter how instructive and informative the original title was, it is a bit of a mouthful.

I have not always been a Banana Boy as I have lived in many places. Before I moved to Durban, I was a Boet, or should that be a Swaer, from the Eastern Cape. Since I was born in England I may at one time be considered a Soutie, Limey or Pommy but I realised that was false when I sat next to a black man on the Tube in London who spoke with a Cockney accent. It was then that I understood that he was English and despite my pale complexion I was African.

I think that along the way I have learnt something about the fluctuating nature of identity especially as prior to an adoption by my third father, Mr Roberts, I was a Rautenbach. By the same token I am aware “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Whilst there is an inherent quality to the “rose” it is often the title that can make us think about associations and inferences that make for a richer comprehension.

I like being a Banana Boy. It lacks the rustic Arcadianness of the swaer from the Eastern Cape and the gender neutrality of a strelitzia but for a man of my age it has, what is needed, the insinuation of virility.

The power of a flood

April 25th, 2009 | Posted in Newsletter | No Comments
Tags: From the navel to the nest, Wood

A drought makes my wife happy as it gives her a reason to stick a brick in the cistern, to insist that we only flush the toilet when absolutely necessary and to recycle the bath water. She will snap at anyone who lets a tap drip and beware of her sharp tongue if you do not put the plug in the sink. All her efforts to save water are noble and good in a country that has a shortage of water but in Durban it has rained non stop for 3 months.

Rain drumming down on my roof puts a toothy grin on my face. It is not because I like to spite my wife or because my wife and I spent a long time in that dry part of the world, Grahamstown, but because I am hoping for a deluge. If that sounds as odd as my wife saving water when it is raining there is a reason. The power of a flood is exciting and productive. It jerks me out my humdrum existence, reminds me of just how small and powerless I am and the river brings me wood in abundance.

My new works are all made of wood that have washed onto the beach with the recent summer rains.

‘From the Navel to the Nest’ (now at The Art Room) is made from a piece of wood that I found at Port Shepstone. It has been eaten by shipworm, also known as Toledo worm or gribble. The holes create a random organic texture that is different and complimentary to the natural dark stained cracks and adds to the variety of marks on the surfaces. The darkness, mattness and shapes of the cracks and holes contrast with the polished surface and rich colour of the wood. Its form is loosely based on a bird and one of Henry Moore’s sculptures. (’Animal Head’, 1951.) Like Moore’s work the emphasis is on the internal dynamics of the sculpture or as he said “Form for its own sake and a truth to materials”.

‘Wolf’ (sold) is a piece of Wild Plum. Where the wood is revealed it is satin smooth and a beautiful rich red colour that contrasts with the dark corroded exterior. As is so often the case, the wood that survives these rivers is special. This piece is a part in a tree that moved while it was growing and as result the grain has been compressed into ‘ripples’. When the compression marks are polished they appear as darker and lighter bands of colour. The work is an interesting combination of contrasts and complimentary elements of colour, texture, line and form which make the work visually exciting.

The distinctiveness of the wood reminds me of a story I was told by an engineer whom I met when I lectured at University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. He had worked on one of the bridges over the Umgeni River. Part of the process of the construction required core samples from the riverbed to be sent to Japan for testing and dating. Out of one of the cores came a piece of wood which the engineer washed and placed in his office. He told me that the next morning he could smell that the wood was tamboti and when the core was tested it was dated at ten thousand years old.

I have made a number of works with wood that has spent a long time in the mud, akin to what the engineer found and similar to bogwood. They are dark, sometimes throughout and sometimes revealing their original colour when deeply cut, and sometimes the wood is carbonised and charcoal like.

Three small works ‘Sleeping Bird’, ‘Feeling of Floating’ and ‘Cloaked Angel’ are from the “bog” and illustrate these attributes. These works are sketches as they are quickly done to pursue an idea, explore the material or to exploit the natural forms. They, to use Moore’s maxim, are “guided by the spirit of the material”. I consider these pieces of wood, like the bones I use, to be uniquely African materials but there are links with the Europeans. Bog wood and bones have been used for sculpture since man lived in the caves and more recently Henry Moore used bones as a starting point for many of his works.

I used to get a few of these pieces of wood by wading thigh deep into the water on the mud flats and feeling for them with my toes. The same floods that bring me my wood have brought less desirable things like polystyrene, plastic bottles, carcasses of animals, e-coli and flesh eating bacteria. However, of all those undesirable things the most feared has, like me, a toothy grin and like the snapper at home loves water and even though I have not seen it, I will respect it. The sign on the bank of my favourite river says: “Beware of the Crocodile” and now in order to get my bits of wood I, like my wife, look forward to a drought.

Loyal, faithful and dear

February 24th, 2009 | Posted in Newsletter | No Comments
Tags: Sub Prime Shark, Wood

My wife, like my dogs, is a loyal, faithful and dear companion but unlike my dogs she does not have the capacity for a cuddle, the ability to forgive when I neglect her and does not respond to any of my commands.

Bingo, our small SPCA special, almost terrier type of dog, is slavishly devoted and lavishly affectionate and generally obeys my commands. She is happiest when close to me. She hops on to the chair wherever I sit and tucks in behind or next to me. Even when I go to the toilet she follows and waits patiently outside the door. She is jealous of my children, their pet rats or anyone to whom I might show some attention. She is only too willing to shower me with kisses at every opportunity and whilst I enjoy most of this attention, I do try and dodge the septic breath kisses.

Bingo was named before he was found at SPCA and then he turned out to be a she. This was the start of a process that was corruptive and one which was egged on by Bingo’s own lack of personal hygiene and her penchant for chicken poop. Her name was eroded from Bingo to Bingarella and then corroded to the Really Smelly Relly and now she is known as the Smellish Relish. Notwithstanding all the issues of name, sexual identity and personal hygiene, the Smellish Relish, like my wife, has a heart of gold.

Perhaps I should not compare my wife to our little bitch but she started this by the remark that the dog was a wife substitute. I prefer to think of my wife as a porcupine. She appears sweet and docile but a good distance is required so that one is not speared by her barbs. Her breath, however, is a lot sweeter than Bingo’s but I rarely get a kiss from her. When I do, for my own safety, I kiss with one eye open, lips pursed and puckered to ensure as much distance as is possible and a course of retreat carefully preplanned.

The conversation we had has resulted in a new sculpture, the ‘Wife Substitute’, which celebrates my relationship with the dog and is symbolic of our marriage. Historically, a dog in art is often used as images of domesticity and sometimes used to convey attributes of men or women. I began to make dog sculptures shortly after I met my wife and the progression is revealing. Perhaps most telling was a work I made at the time of our marriage which was titled ‘Marriage: Is This An Old Duck Or A Chick On My Back’ and which conveys a certain ambivalence.

The ‘Sub Prime Shark’ is also a new and an unusual work. In some way this is a fun work made from a piece of wood that I found whilst on holiday at Shelly Beach. Its exaggerated features bring about a cartoon like quality that is playful. It recalls the shark I caught fishing and has the fluid movement of the fish. However at the same time it is a political and social work as it reflects the predatory, voracious and anxious aspects of the financial and social crises that are affecting our world.

I would be less concerned with the world affairs if I could find that sensual, sweet breathed and safe kiss. Then again, so would most of the politicians and at least I am not that ugly and I don’t have to lie for a living. Perhaps before I turn to alcohol and the kiss of the Tsar’s hop to drown my sorrows I must count my blessing. After all, I have a wife and two dogs that are loyal, faithful and dear to me.

Wherever I lay my hat

August 29th, 2008 | Posted in Newsletter | No Comments
Tags: bone sculpture, Figure, Wood

It seems to me that I live by Murphy’s Law which states that if any thing can go wrong, it will. It started long before I could possibly be responsible for any of it. The dynasty of disaster probably goes all the way back to Cain but as I know it, it starts with my grandfather and his heart attack. A few years later my father crashed his jet and killed himself when I was three months old, then a second father followed who died of lung cancer within a few years. He was succeeded by father number three who was divorced and later died and then this sequence is nicely rounded off by father number four who was also attacked by his heart.

In the recent past it seems that Murphy’s Law is being implemented by the government. Apart from all the public issues they took five years to issue a permit which enables me to collect drift wood for my driftwoord art from a small area on the beach. The drift wood was the mainstay of my income at the time and one might have thought their intention was to render me unproductive and bankrupt. As a necessary alternative I focused on bone carving which flourished until recently, when those responsible for applying Murphy’s Law wanted to send out the armed forces to arrest me and my gallery for not having a permit for the bones. Eventually it transpired that no permit was needed for those particular bones and permits of this nature are supposed to be issued by the very people who gave me the bones in the first place, namely KZN Wildlife.

Life takes some unexpected turns and since I have returned from Australia I have been unsettled. On the positive side the inspirational pot has been stirred and I now want to try a few new things and revisit some old ones. I am making some bronze works, have started a work in strelitzia leaves and I have an idea involving Perspex car lenses. The work I have completed is a bone sculpture about migration called ‘Directions’ and I am sure I will have a few more works on this subject.

It is impossible to go to Australia and not think about migration. We were primed by many of our friends who asked if we were going for an LSD. Whilst I knew that Australia has some problems with drugs I was still mystified. The South African meaning of LSD in this context is an acronym for Look, See and Decide. That was not our intention. However what we saw impressed us and put the option of emigrating into the mix of things. There has been turmoil ever since.

This work depicts a number of directionless rowers, milling around on a fish boat. Fish are a symbol of happiness for me and the boat an image of the passage of life. I suppose this sculpture is about the decisions I need make to settle and find contentment.

I have come to the conclusion that no one emigrates at my age except those that are desperate. Why one would leave the country you are familiar with and love? Why leave lifelong friends and family? (Although many of them are now in Australia). I also realise that most of my business contacts are here and if I were to emigrate I would have to begin again and it may be years before I gain any reputation as an artist. In addition, and no matter how dispirited I feel about the South African situation, it seems that the Australian authorities regard anyone of my age and situation as decrepit, unemployable and probably undesirable. Perhaps they are right but exceptions are made for the hefty price of $750 000 Aus. Murphy’s Law as a disrupting force is active in my life not only in the big things, but also in the small things and on a daily basis.

Collecting the Perspex was easy as my friend Mark Robert owns Marmic, a vast scrap yard filled with crashed cars. However, Perspex is glued with chloroform and chloroform was recently deemed by the government as having schedule six status. I now need a prescription or a permit and, looking as I usually do in my tatty clothes like a tramp or drug addict, did not help. Then, after I had managed to persuade someone to sell it to me, I discovered it did not work in the way I had hoped it would.

Similarly, I have bones which need degreasing and I hoped to expedite the process by boiling them. It appeared an easy task, all I needed was a 44 gallon drum under which I would light a fire. However, the neighbour complained of the smoke, and since we live in a smokeless zone I had to put it out or face the fire brigade. Resolute in my purpose, I bought a gas ring but the gas proved insufficiently hot to boil the water and having gone to all this trouble I then found out that the drum was too small for the big bones.

I spend a lot of time doing nothing or at least doing something futile and having to redo it. Perhaps I should stick to my knitting and those areas where I have already sorted out the problems, but that is not as exciting. A way around the difficulties is eventually found. I need to weld two drums together, I have replaced the gas ring with a diesel burner, the Perspex can be welded with a soldering iron, and eventually I had two pharmacists who where willing sell me some chloroform.

A lot of what I do and enjoy about sculpture is finding the solutions to the problems. I am fortunate in that I remain positive and persevere with my projects as the only certainty is that things change and that change is often not to my advantage. It is important to see the difficulties as a challenge and to tackle them creatively. After all, life is tragic, difficult and unfair but it is also a privilege and opportunity.

I think I will be happy here, there or anywhere.

Headed Down Under

June 26th, 2008 | Posted in Newsletter | No Comments
Tags: Animal, Bird, Wood

Flying, the way I feel about it, is for the birds. I am convinced that the engines will fall off, the wings will snap or the plane will be bombed. In any event I am certain it will fall out of the sky. I am afraid of flying and by the time you read this letter I will have winged my way to Australia.

I understand the scientific explanation for how an aeroplane gets into the sky and whilst that may be logical, rational and reasonable, I feel that it is impossible. Modern aeroplanes are heavy and I have heard the figure of 160 tons and more mentioned. I refuse to believe that such a large and heavy thing can be airborne and think it should be moored alongside the quay with seagulls flying around it.

Perhaps my fears of flight or my admiration for birds have prompted my recent images of ‘Bird in Flight’ (sold) and ‘Swoop’ (now at the Gallery on the Square). I never make animal sculptures or bird sculptures from an ornithological or zoological point of view. I do not attend to the anatomical details enough for that, I am more concerned with the formal construction and even make distortions for my own sculptural ends. My birds, being made of dense heavy wood, will most certainly plummet to earth if they were propelled into the air. However, I hope my birds give the feeling of lightness, movement, flow of air, featheredness and all that make you think that they could flit, fly, swoop and stoop. ‘Urban Gorilla’ is rooted in the fears and disappointments of living in South Africa: Fat cat criminals, mismanagement of parastatals, violent xenophobic behaviour, and other torments. I am generally a positive person with faith in South Africa but sometimes the bad news just comes too thick and fast and then I too have my doubts. This work reminds me of the film ‘Once were Warriors’ about an alcoholic and dysfunctional Maori family. The title of the film could have been another title for this work.

However there is a comic side to it as the figure is short, fat, clumsy, distorted, beady eyed and is overexerting himself. I guess it focuses on the misguided and idiotic behaviour and pompous self importance of people who have made a mess of things and the almost invariable and inevitable portliness of government officials and crooks that are so often one and the same thing.

This sculpture is made from the azalea bush root system. They are perhaps the closest I can get to the expressiveness of the thick impasto painting by the likes of the painters William de Koning and Leon Kossoff. I love the medium, not only does it have a fine dense wood but more importantly, there is a randomness and complexity of root forms, contrasts of light wood and dark spaces and linearity of roots that draw a sort of fake anatomy and give the feeling of a flayed body to the figure.

This, for me, expresses something of the rawness, fragmentation and confusion of feelings I have living in South Africa. Fear and hope, excitement and despair, opportunity and desperation are a few of those feelings that I experience on a regular basis. This work is a Yeti of Gauteng, an Abominable Hillcrest man or a Wild man of the bush futilely brandishing himself in defence against the intolerable unseen forces which are everywhere and nowhere.

In that respect I am going to enjoy Australia as it will be a change and a respite from the onslaught of bad news. I will leave behind the electricity saboteurs, third force xenophobes, still active agents of apartheid and all those that took responsibility for the various problems or crimes and resigned. Of course, Australia has its own share of problems. Although I am not well informed, I hear that the kangaroos are on the Australian mafia hit list and the gulls are bait thieves! Whatever their problems are I will view them from a distance and at least it will be a change.

I now only have to deal with the stress of flying there. If I could have sailed my sea sickness would only have lasted for about a week and I could have admired the seagulls flying overhead along the way. The nightmares about flying have been with me for three weeks, I have died a dozen times and I have yet to make the trip. However, I do have to make that flight as I have serious business to do in Australia and I do not have the time to sail there.

In case you were thinking it, I am not emigrating, I am going to see my brother and provided the gulls leave me some bait the important business I will be doing, is fishing with him.

Strange company

December 17th, 2007 | Posted in Newsletter | No Comments
Tags: Bone, stone, Wood

My sculptures travel all over the world. I am often amazed at where they end up. Whilst the galleries keep their clients a secret, they sometimes tell me the where the works go. I am aware of works in at least 14 countries. I have many in places like England, America, Germany and Australia, but also have in some unexpected places such as Columbia and Thailand.

When I was told one of my works may be sold to a visitor from Angola I was surprised, a little skeptical and began to speculate about the buyer. I got to thinking about Angola’s diamonds and the film ‘Blood Diamond’. Then my suspicions were focused in a different direction by the sale being complicated. Apparently there are no credit cards and electronic transfers are difficult in Angola. I started to think about the notorious 419 scam. I began to imagine I was going to be asked to pay into an untraceable account, or submit my pin number along with my bank account, to make this sale happen. In the end I have been paid and now have a work in a collection in a new country, Angola. The only suspect thing remaining is my rather exposed prejudices.

We have just spent a week at Kenton-on-Sea. The trip was to gather material to make my wood sculptures, stone sculptures and bone sculptures. We also used the opportunity to visit a few of our friends, and of course I will use any excuse to do a little fishing. Every evening I would fish with a sort of religious passion. Like a monk doing penance I battled the waves, weather, rocks and smelly bait. Much of my time was spent bent over my fishing rod in fervent prayer, hoping for divine intervention. This ascetic patiently waited for hours. At each moment I was ready, coiled like a spring, braced to strike should my call come. Then, cold from the wind, I decided to put on a jacket. The rod was held with my knee against a rock whilst one hand pulled the jacket and the other was pushed half way through a reluctant sleeve. I am not sure if this is Murphy’s Law, a divine comedy or cosmic joke, but this was the moment the fish struck!

‘Dawn’ is a recently completed work. It now belongs to a hairdresser from England who cuts, amongst others, Victoria Beckham’s hair. A hairdresser is a sculptor in his or her own right and judging by her client must be a good one. She was an eager client who bought the work when it was still unfinished.

I am always pleased to get a sale, it helps pay the bills. A quick sale is a bonus and a quick sale during the festive season is just heaven sent. It puts those few extra rand in my pocket which my wife desperately needs.

This sale pleased me because a hairdresser is just the right kind of person to own this work.

High hopes for the future of art

September 30th, 2007 | Posted in Newsletter | No Comments
Tags: Bird, Wood

I have taken some of my work to the Kizo Art Gallery so that I could support the Heritage Arts Festival. Kizo is a huge space in the Gateway shopping centre in Umhlanga that can take lots of work and display my big works easily.

The festival is unusual in that it has visual arts as the primary focus and I think it is just what Durban and us artists needed in the region. It kicked off with a Gala launch Party last night at the Kizo gallery, but it is much more than a one night event, with a number of exhibitions and events happening.

I am hoping that the Kizo festival will grow like the National Festival of the Arts did in Grahamstown. The Grahamstown festival grew from a local Shakespeare festival into an international event and I am hopeful that our Durban festival will follow the same way.

The latest work is ‘Phoenix Rising’. It is made from a piece of wild plum wood that I found at the Kei River mouth whilst on holiday in the Eastern Cape. The work is loosely based on a bird of paradise and I am most pleased with the firelike qualities it has.

My son, Jack, and 23 five year old classmates of the school’s Red Group provided a delightful array of little people, birds and Ladybirds with which to decorate the tree that I had made for the school fundraiser. I have called it ‘The Faraway Tree’. (Thanks to Enid Blyton for the title.) The tree looks like something from a Harry Potter film with its knotted, gnarled and dark features. The children have provided the bright, the light and joyous aspects in their glazed clay additions. They make a lovely contrast and it is a delightful object.

Thinking about it, there must have been some divine intervention as it was a pleasure to make and not the pain or the disaster I was expecting. Now that this little adventure is over I will have to go back to being grumpy Big Ears!

Thankfully busy-busy

August 26th, 2007 | Posted in Newsletter | No Comments
Tags: Wood

The month has past in an absolute blur!

Neil Wright’s book ‘Meeting Carl Roberts’ has won a Bronze award at the SAPPI book awards. I think it is richly deserved as Neil has worked hard and spared no expense to make a fantastic book. He hired a first class book designer, Durban’s best proof reader and used SAPPI’s best paper to get the results he wanted. The award is a stamp of approval by the cognoscenti and I am delighted and feel privileged to have a book of this quality about my work and my life.

I have recently been invited to consign works for an auction by Christies New York. I was initially surprised as it seemed to come out of nowhere, but of course I have exhibited at Christies London and they are a worldwide organisation. They have obviously forwarded my name and address to New York.

However, prior to this invitation I had agreed to take part in an exhibition for the delegates of G20 and the Heritage Arts Festival that will be held at Gateway in Durban, and of course I am committed to my word. Needless to say, I am working as hard as I can to try and take full advantage of all these opportunities. It does mean that I have a bit too much on my plate and am not sure if I will manage it all.

Talking of commitments, I still have to finish that work for my son, Jack, and his school (you know, the project with the 24, five year old assistants). Help! Send divine intervention.

At last my exemption which allows me to go onto the beach with a 4×4 vehicle to collect wood has been renewed by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Hurrah! This time for they have made it for two years. An even bigger hurrah! It is vitally important for me as the beach has always been principle source of wood, and wood of a quality not available anywhere else.

The flat piece of wood I mentioned in my previous letter has turned into a beautiful work. It is now called ‘The Passage of Time’ and is made from syringa wood which was partially burnt. (Have a look at my website or my book). It has similarities with an ‘Icarus’ that ended up in the Pretoria Art Museum.

Got to get back to grinding, like Jack’s Giant I grind bones to make my bread.

Wood

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