Artist in Residence. Trinity Catholic School 2008

Trinity Catholic School. Leamington Spa

Artist in Residence 2008

Last year was my debut as artist in Residence.

2008 Intimacy Project.

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