Sculpture in Portland Stone; Barry the Beak

I am in the process of completing my second sculpture in Portland stone

this piece is inspired by the themes "dark matter"and "gargoyles"
These are both themes I've been using in my work for Trinity Catholic school, Lspa and The Chelmsley Wood stone carvers,at the Baptist church, Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham

 not quiet finished, but I think I'm close to a final form

I started this piece with something very different in mind

the original piece of stone was very long and thin 

my idea was to start with a dragon head similar to "Gorgeous George"(see my post Gargoyles and others, 28/11/13) with a figure holding /appearing from its mouth

But the stone is not the best quality and too narrow, gradually I removed the figure and the front of dragons mouth.
Sometimes I find you have to let go of an original idea to allow the work to fully develop. This process usually starts by a bit dropping off unexpectedly, then quite a lot of swearing.

gargoyles and others,

I carved Gorgeous George in response to two different projects; Dark Matter at Trinity and Gargoyles at Chelmsleywood.

The head of a mythical beast

The size compared to the viewer is important, you have to be able to imagine climbing in.

A very human choice, safety or danger
Elizabeth Frink  looks at this theme in her early work on  the Goggled head.
She talks about warriors; a necessary defence in tribal society yet has the potential to destroy the tribe.
This can be seen in modern society( military coos; Arab spring), as well as ( on a much smaller scale) our choices in daily life. in other words, we gamble.

Goggled Head 1969
Elizabeth Frink

Originally  I made George with massive fangs, but the breeze block crumbled. 

Once I removed the fangs (a risky business), I was able to open up his mouth to produce a better sculpture

A wonderful 5 day carving workshop

Last week I was commuting daily to the Baptist church,  Chelmsley Wood, Burmingham. Where I taught a small group of local people to carve in breeze block, Gargoyles inspired some people,  others came with their own ideas.