Trinity Catholic School. Leamington Spa
Last year was my debut as artist in Residence.
Teaching Year 10’s to cast and carve plaster.
I started working with Year 10 students in
October. First we cast plaster blocks and learnt
about the carving tools. Then we discussed our
ideas and looked at some sculpture by
Constantine Brancusi and Barbara Hepwoth.
Good sculpture is very powerful, so we
concentrated on simple ideas and overall
shapes, rather than getting bogged down with
too much realistic detail.
We all worked on the carvings through
November and December. Individual ideas
ranged from a hand holding a small object and
interlocking hands, to a kissing couple, and a
bitten heart cake.
I also worked on a piece in soap stone for the
school’s collection, using the intimacy theme.
Background
In August I visited The Liverpool Tate to see a
Gustav Klimt exhibition, where one of his
paintings - The Kiss (1907/8) particularly
influenced me. In September I bought a piece
of white soapstone that resembled the shape of
Klimt's Kiss and in October started to carve
the lovers faces.
Inspiration for using this concept in a relatively small space comes primarily from a bus stop in Unst, situated in the middle of nowhere as far north in the UK as you can get. Someone looks after this small space, it features a PC, a toy hamster in a cage and a visitors book.
You can do things with wax that you could never do with sculpture. I’m hoping to incorporate smell into the installation. As with scented candles, an aroma such as garlic is released when the wax is reheated and as my kitchen is my studio, it only seems apt.
My Adventures in Wax will be on public view as part of Trinity's Artefacts Exhibition May2010
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