Sharing an Article

I was asked to put together an article on my work for an environmental website called www.milanogreenforum.com and I thought I would share with you here what I’d written:-

My personal art practice consists of attempts to deeply connect to natural spaces in an attempt to reveal subtle nuances, cycles and processes with the aim to explore nature connection, methods to access inherent creativity and explore themes relating to impermanence, the nature of existence and the cycles of nature.

Primarily the mode I use is through creation of objects from ephemeral natural materials gathered in-situ but I try to channel a broader perspective of the environment: both on short and long timescales: for example subtle changes in the wind, humidity and ambient light through to how working with leaves from one particular tree over multiple seasons will reveal environmental changes over a longer period.

There is a great deal of experimentation with new places, environments, collaborations and communities being particularly fruitful and I document my work in photos and films as 99% of my work disappears back into the environment soon after it is made.

When working with various communities, schools, groups etc. I try to impart the ethos behind what I do by showing folks how to connect with nature, explore their environment, connect to their own creativity with hope that I can inspire an ongoing love for nature. Through making nature art together I hope to impart the wisdom that embracing impermanence brings and the understanding that we are part of a web of interconnected things.

I have picked out a few images which illustrate the ethos I have tried to describe above, or where there is an interesting story or where I have strong memories because of where I was and what I was doing. Some of these tales make it appear like I live a grand artist's life but it is much more simple and humble than you might imagine but I am extremely grateful for the wonderful opportunities this artist's life have brought along. Both those many moments out in nature when time stops and infinity stretches out in each moment and the few amazing invites I've been lucky enough to receive.

Images

3 4 colour sunwheels

My signature style. This sculpture was the turning point when I emerged from a student artist into my own style. Up to this point I had mainly been exploring materials, it was with this that I started to incorporate and explore other environmental factors like sunlight, humidity and the wind and an intuitive, nature led style and began actively avoiding other artist's expressions in nature art.

The Three realms

Pebbles collected from a beach seen on the horizon. Flat stones collected from the place it was constructed. The sculpture containing and connecting the three realms of Celtic folklore: Earth, Sea and Sky both literally and figuratively and the bringing together of the physical exploration of all those places to bring this together.

Norwegian Maple Autumn Fire Wheel

Sculptures that connect to a time and place and point to the infinite variances in nature. When I made this I passed one Norway Maple tree that had these bright red colours on it, it was very early autumn, late summer really. No other trees I saw were changing. I took a few leaves and made this sculpture as I stood on the edge of autumn. It always stuck in my mind as during subsequent years this tree did not do this again. Nor did I see another of this type show colour so early. It was a unique combination of causes and conditions in that moment of time, as all things inevitably are. I have seen this many times over my years or practice.

Seeds

I drew these dandelion seeds on a nearby beach over two days. There were very large (140 x 240 metres), and were on a mudflat with a large tidal range approx 6.5 to 10.5 metres. This means that the shore is not covered every tide, how far the tide reaches comes in sets of days with tides < 8.5 m leaving lots of shore clear and > 8.5 m the water comes in all the way. The mud is harder to draw on than sand but has different, more subtle hues. The pitch of the shore is very shallow. I did not study the tides but began spontaneously on one day. I drew the largest seed the first day and returned the second to draw the rest I came back the third day to draw more seeds but the tide had wiped out most of it.

Me

Making a clip for my 2023 Film Encounter. Discs of early autumn Virginia creeper leaves pinned to rush grass stalks with thorns. The rush grass stalks were very bendy so there was all sorts of fiddling around with little bits of stick to attempt to hold them upright in the moss they were placed in.

Rubber plant leaf boxes

I was invited to Agrigento, Sicily a few years ago and had some spare time in between the work to make something in the gardens of the archaeological museum where we would be doing a presentation later in the day. I like to try and make a leaf box wherever I am, as an exercise in understanding a place better, as a vehicle to explore and see what local materials can be used. That is a microcosm of what this art form is all about. In the car park of the museum there were lots of African thorn bushes, which had these long, sharp, white thorns. When new they were strangely bendy but hardened up with age. I harvested a few of those and then found enough leaves of various stages of colour decay in the gardens which had wonderful central veins to form the box sides, and were large so as to make large boxes. Hotter climates have thicker leaves than I am used to at home, for water retention I would imagine, so these were great to make boxes with. The people I worked with and who invited me there asked if they could keep them so I gratefully gifted all seven. I've often wondered if they still have them and what they look like now.

Heard through the Grapevine

Made at the culmination of the Rachana Land Art Festival. Several years ago I was invited to mentor 10 groups of University students taking part in a land art contest in a beautiful village called Rachana in Lebanon. During several days of very hot weather in July I had a fantastic time hanging out with those inspirational folks. On the last day there was a massive celebration at the prize giving along with VIP invitees: the foreign minister, 49 ambassadors along with all the security and army needed for such dignitaries. It was quite the surreal experience and completely unexpected. But on that day I also made a sculpture. Much like the boxes are an exploration of what I can make in a place and a conduit to the exploration required, here I spent a week trying to work out how to make string with the materials there, I experimented with many different materials without success before finally trying out grape vines which lead to this design (now a signature style). The experimenting had drawn me deeply into the location and I added lots of very ephemeral elements in the circles, at the last minute, for the visitors to see. They would only last a few hours due to the heat but what was unexpected was how the setting sun cast a stripe of light across the sculpture, moving across it for 15 minutes right as the closing ceremony began. When I manage to get out of my own way, connect to the environment, not plan and intuitively create, these things often happen without conscious knowledge or control. Terms like land art and environmental art are often used but what I think best captures it is intuitive, ephemeral art. A mouthful but hopefully you can see from these descriptions what I am talking about.