‘When Forms Come Alive’ The Hayward Gallery London April 2024
This was such an exciting and innovative show, lots of kinetic sculpture, artists challenging what sculpture is and could be and exploring the potential of materials. I found it really inspiring and much more thought provoking that the work I had seen during Ceramic Art London. It made me feel excited and I felt inspired by the work, I have been struggling to get excited about my own practice and seeing this show really helped me to understand what I want my work to do in a space. I want it to have a sense of emotion, to evoke something beyond both function and style when someone sees it. I know that achieving that is a process and that doing an MA in ceramics is one component on that journey. This show reminded me why I decided I wanted to make sculpture, sculpture does something to transform a space, it changes how people respond to an object beyond it's basic function or role, it asks questions, it has the potential to connect with the viewer and raise questions or start a conversation. Ceramic sculpture has an authentic and important place in the world of sculptural fine art and I felt motivated to keep pushing myself after seeing this show.
Ceramic Art London April 2024
I remember walking around CAL and enjoying seeing the work, but apart from a handful of makers, most of the artists I had seen before at Potfest, It was great to meet Ashraf Hanna and see his work in person, and also the work of Rich Miller (pottery throw down judge) and Mitch Pilkington. We had some lovely chats with makers and it was useful to see the innovative ways that the makers had displayed there ceramics. I attempted to listen to a couple of the presentations that were on offer but sadly the set up and acoustics made them very difficult to hear properly and I didn't end up staying in either one.
I had hoped for and expected to be wowed by the space, the style of the event and the range of exhibitors given that CAL is considered the top ceramics show to be in, but I just wasn't, it just felt like Potfest in the Park on a slightly bigger scale but in a more clinical setting and I left feeling a bit deflated and again wondering whether this was the right fit for me.
I had hoped for and expected to be wowed by the space, the style of the event and the range of exhibitors given that CAL is considered the top ceramics show to be in, but I just wasn't, it just felt like Potfest in the Park on a slightly bigger scale but in a more clinical setting and I left feeling a bit deflated and again wondering whether this was the right fit for me.
Ceramics Exhibition at The Hepworth February 2024
I love the Hepworth, it houses an amazing collection of work by my absolute favourite artist Barbara Hepworth and I have been a regular visitor for a number of years. I was excited to visit the 'Art of The Potter' exhibition which was presented as a celebration of ceramics and sculpture from the 1930's to now.
Sculpture and ceramics have had a close relationship throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. This exhibition celebrates Wakefield’s progressive approach to collecting ceramics since the 1930s and will shine a light on artists exploring the sculptural possibilities of this versatile medium.
On display are some of the earliest ceramics to join the collection by Michael Cardew and Samuel Haile. A number of works from the 1950s – a particularly rich period for British studio ceramics – are shown by artists including Hans Coper, Bernard and Janet Leach, and Lucie Rie.
The exhibition will include a significant number of recent acquisitions into the collection through gifts, bequests and fundraising including by Alison Britton, Elizabeth Fritsch, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Ewen Henderson, Akiko Hirai, Ryoji Koie and Magdalene Odundo.
https://hepworthwakefield.org/whats-on/the-art-of-the-potter-ceramics-and-sculpture-from-1930-to-now/
It was an interesting show, with a good range of makers of ceramics with a lot of famous names, although the exhibition is described as sculptural, the majority of ceramics exhibited were in the form of some type of vessel, not to suggest that vessels cannot also be sculptural, but I think there was scope to widen the range of pieces to include more sculptural works. Apart from the pieces by Gordon Baldwin, and getting to see some beautifully made pots, I didn't leave the exhibition feeling particularly inspired.
Sculpture and ceramics have had a close relationship throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. This exhibition celebrates Wakefield’s progressive approach to collecting ceramics since the 1930s and will shine a light on artists exploring the sculptural possibilities of this versatile medium.
On display are some of the earliest ceramics to join the collection by Michael Cardew and Samuel Haile. A number of works from the 1950s – a particularly rich period for British studio ceramics – are shown by artists including Hans Coper, Bernard and Janet Leach, and Lucie Rie.
The exhibition will include a significant number of recent acquisitions into the collection through gifts, bequests and fundraising including by Alison Britton, Elizabeth Fritsch, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Ewen Henderson, Akiko Hirai, Ryoji Koie and Magdalene Odundo.
https://hepworthwakefield.org/whats-on/the-art-of-the-potter-ceramics-and-sculpture-from-1930-to-now/
It was an interesting show, with a good range of makers of ceramics with a lot of famous names, although the exhibition is described as sculptural, the majority of ceramics exhibited were in the form of some type of vessel, not to suggest that vessels cannot also be sculptural, but I think there was scope to widen the range of pieces to include more sculptural works. Apart from the pieces by Gordon Baldwin, and getting to see some beautifully made pots, I didn't leave the exhibition feeling particularly inspired.
British Ceramics Biennial 23/09/23
I was keen to visit the BCB but wanted to take the opportunity to listen to some of the artists talks being given by the 'Award' finalists. I booked myself onto talks by Carrie Reichardt, Mella Shaw and Elspeth Owen. I also really wanted to see the pieces by Rebecca Appleby as I had only seen these as works in progress at her studio and online. I am not going to talk about the whole show, but will focus on the highlights and points of interest for me.
What struck me first was that the main exhibition areas were located far from the centre of stoke, in Hanley, the exhibitions were across two sites within a couple of metres of each other. The main building was All Saints Church with the remainder of the works displayed in the nearby church hall. It would seem that funding for the event and perhaps even local council interest in the event as a whole had led to its location and to a somewhat low key vibe to the whole show. I am aware that in previous years the BCB had been held in Spode China Hal which would seem a much more fitting venue, sadly this building is no longer considered safe and there seems to be no plans to renovate and reignite this space except by the thriving rave culture in stoke.
What struck me first was that the main exhibition areas were located far from the centre of stoke, in Hanley, the exhibitions were across two sites within a couple of metres of each other. The main building was All Saints Church with the remainder of the works displayed in the nearby church hall. It would seem that funding for the event and perhaps even local council interest in the event as a whole had led to its location and to a somewhat low key vibe to the whole show. I am aware that in previous years the BCB had been held in Spode China Hal which would seem a much more fitting venue, sadly this building is no longer considered safe and there seems to be no plans to renovate and reignite this space except by the thriving rave culture in stoke.
Elspeth Owens work was an installation piece about time, decay, impermanency and transformation, her installation was a call out of pottery shards from around the globe, collated and piled into a long mound in the garden at the back of the church. On top of the shards lay a row of low bisque fired tiny pinch pot bowls. These small vessels were made to react to the exposure to the weather and remained outside for the duration of the event where visitors where invited to remove them on the last day. Her talk was a performative narrative about her life as a maker, about change and transformation, Owens is 84 years old and was reflecting the changes she was making both to her work and how she was choosing to practice. It was a very interesting at experience and there was a calm, contemplative, meditative sense to the whole piece, she was as much part of this work as the objects themselves.
Below are some images of her piece.
Below are some images of her piece.
I was keen to see Rebecca Appleby's work, I love her ethos as a maker and she has been very kind and supportive to me so I was excited to see the pieces she had been working on.
I thought the pieces were very interesting, organic looking spheres with very complex textured surfaces, but sadly I felt that they were poorly curated, the placement and location of the pieces in the venue really let them down. There were too many pieces, standing too close together with insufficient light to really enable them to be fully appreciated. It was hard to stand back and look at them and they were partly obscured by the heavy, dark wood surroundings of the church that mainly relied on window light, because the building is a cavernous dark space, any directional lighting became lost and I felt that this impacted on the overall look of her work.
Below are images that I took of her pieces.
I thought the pieces were very interesting, organic looking spheres with very complex textured surfaces, but sadly I felt that they were poorly curated, the placement and location of the pieces in the venue really let them down. There were too many pieces, standing too close together with insufficient light to really enable them to be fully appreciated. It was hard to stand back and look at them and they were partly obscured by the heavy, dark wood surroundings of the church that mainly relied on window light, because the building is a cavernous dark space, any directional lighting became lost and I felt that this impacted on the overall look of her work.
Below are images that I took of her pieces.
"Boundary End by Nicola Tassie comprises 60 individual thrown ceramic forms tightly arranged together. It questions the ideas of the spaces we inhabit and the boundaries that are enforced on people and communities."
https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/exhibitions/award/
Nicola Tassie's work was really fascinating, I love the idea of transforming the mechanically formed wheel thrown cylinder into an organic form, slotting many wheel thrown components together to form a 'wall' of strange looking vessels. Again I think there were problems with how it was sited, it was a low piece and hard to see properly and looked tiny in the setting despite the number of vessels, it felt like it was competing hard with the space it was in set against grand granite carved pillars, wood panelling and stained glass windows.
Below are some images of the work
https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/exhibitions/award/
Nicola Tassie's work was really fascinating, I love the idea of transforming the mechanically formed wheel thrown cylinder into an organic form, slotting many wheel thrown components together to form a 'wall' of strange looking vessels. Again I think there were problems with how it was sited, it was a low piece and hard to see properly and looked tiny in the setting despite the number of vessels, it felt like it was competing hard with the space it was in set against grand granite carved pillars, wood panelling and stained glass windows.
Below are some images of the work
Mella Shaw - Sounding Line
Sounding Line by Mella Shaw focuses on the overuse of marine sonar which is having a devastating effect on deep-diving whale species that rely on echolocation (a biological sonar used by several animal species). She has created large-scale sculptural forms inspired by the whales’ tiny inner ear bones.
https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/exhibitions/award/
I was blown away both by the artist and the complexity and sophistication of this piece. It's an installation of large stoneware cloud/bone type sculptures bound with heavy red cotton rope. The stoneware is mixed with whale bone and some have markings on the surface. Some pieces are suspended on a heavy scaffold framework with vibrating devices attached to the ends of the ropes that send a vibration through the rope down to the sculptural pieces. The aim is to give the viewer a sense of what whales experience from the sonar sounds emitted by submarines and ships that are scouting the oceans for oil.
Accompanying the installation is a video performance of Shaw dragging one of the unfired sculptures across the beach and back to the ocean where it breaks down amongst the waves returning the material back to the earth.
The whole piece is complex and sophisticated, with many layers, there is a strong ecological narrative that puts the viewer right in the centre of the issue of whale deaths from beaching as a consequence of over use of sonar, this is immediately evocative, you see it and feel it in the space. The sculptures themselves are beautifully refined and tactile and the performance demonstrates the level of the artists commitment to the work and the importance of research and depth to creating this work as a whole.
Unsurprisingly Ella Shaw was the winner of the Award prize and will be a featured artists at the next biennial in 2025.
Below are images of her work.
Sounding Line by Mella Shaw focuses on the overuse of marine sonar which is having a devastating effect on deep-diving whale species that rely on echolocation (a biological sonar used by several animal species). She has created large-scale sculptural forms inspired by the whales’ tiny inner ear bones.
https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/exhibitions/award/
I was blown away both by the artist and the complexity and sophistication of this piece. It's an installation of large stoneware cloud/bone type sculptures bound with heavy red cotton rope. The stoneware is mixed with whale bone and some have markings on the surface. Some pieces are suspended on a heavy scaffold framework with vibrating devices attached to the ends of the ropes that send a vibration through the rope down to the sculptural pieces. The aim is to give the viewer a sense of what whales experience from the sonar sounds emitted by submarines and ships that are scouting the oceans for oil.
Accompanying the installation is a video performance of Shaw dragging one of the unfired sculptures across the beach and back to the ocean where it breaks down amongst the waves returning the material back to the earth.
The whole piece is complex and sophisticated, with many layers, there is a strong ecological narrative that puts the viewer right in the centre of the issue of whale deaths from beaching as a consequence of over use of sonar, this is immediately evocative, you see it and feel it in the space. The sculptures themselves are beautifully refined and tactile and the performance demonstrates the level of the artists commitment to the work and the importance of research and depth to creating this work as a whole.
Unsurprisingly Ella Shaw was the winner of the Award prize and will be a featured artists at the next biennial in 2025.
Below are images of her work.
Strange Clay - Hayward Gallery London Jan 2023
This was the first ceramics specific exhibition I had gone to London specifically to see, I really wanted to see the work in this show because my research for my first assignment had left me wondering about where ceramics actually fits within the fine art/contemporary craft continuum. The answer I found from seeing this show was a resounding Fine Art context, everything had sophisticated and complex narratives. Materiality was a strong part of a number of works, there was also humour, religious and political themes as well as some challenging works where construction and quality of workmanship was hard to ignore and there were some pieces that in my personal opinion were downright ugly!
The highlights for me where the porcelain installation pieces by Rachel Kneebone, her narrative pieces express the connections between nature and the body and despite the purity of the whiteness there is a visceral quality to the work which is very striking.
Salvatore Arancio’s strangely surreal works look like an alien has landed in the exhibition space and laid some weird eggs or pods that are bursting out from the rock face. There is something fantastical about the pieces, a sci-fi Ernst Haeckel type of sculpture that wouldn’t look out of place in a sci-fi comic book.
I enjoyed looking at the forms of Ken Prices sculptures, they have a very organic quality but I found the metallic, painterly finishes and the colours used too distracting and busy like one was competing with the other.
David Zink Yi put a giant squid on the floor of the gallery, it grabbed loads of attention and was very striking but the very best work for me was Lindsey Mendick’s installation, it was just fabulous. Funny, dark and relatable, her work uses humour to deal with her own and many of our own deepest fears and anxieties, a snail chariot pulled by white mice, an octopus in the toilet and slugs getting drunk on beer, the detail is fantastic.
Below are some pics I took of the exhibition.
The highlights for me where the porcelain installation pieces by Rachel Kneebone, her narrative pieces express the connections between nature and the body and despite the purity of the whiteness there is a visceral quality to the work which is very striking.
Salvatore Arancio’s strangely surreal works look like an alien has landed in the exhibition space and laid some weird eggs or pods that are bursting out from the rock face. There is something fantastical about the pieces, a sci-fi Ernst Haeckel type of sculpture that wouldn’t look out of place in a sci-fi comic book.
I enjoyed looking at the forms of Ken Prices sculptures, they have a very organic quality but I found the metallic, painterly finishes and the colours used too distracting and busy like one was competing with the other.
David Zink Yi put a giant squid on the floor of the gallery, it grabbed loads of attention and was very striking but the very best work for me was Lindsey Mendick’s installation, it was just fabulous. Funny, dark and relatable, her work uses humour to deal with her own and many of our own deepest fears and anxieties, a snail chariot pulled by white mice, an octopus in the toilet and slugs getting drunk on beer, the detail is fantastic.
Below are some pics I took of the exhibition.
‘Where The Bodies are Buried’ - Lindsey Mendick at YSP April 2023
Having seen Mendick's work earlier this year at Strange Clay I was excited to see her solo show in the Weston Gallery at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Here is some information about the exhibition from YSP.
...taking the form of a multi-media installation that investigates dreams, Gothic stories, television and cultural experiences from the 1990s. Bringing the artist's recurring anxiety dream to life, Where The Bodies Are Buried took the form of a decaying house with dark secrets beneath the floorboards.
Works included ceramics and stained glass emerging from the floor as hands, feet and limbs, with a film playing across several screens creating a chorus for simultaneous viewing. Anxiety dreams have long inspired artists and writers, ranging from Eve’s prophetic dream about eating the forbidden fruit in Paradise Lost, to Surrealist paintings and sculpture depicting hauntings and dream-states. The phrase ‘where the bodies are buried’ means to possess information or secrets about a person or organisation. In Mendick’s installation, the secrets are both literal and metaphorical, the buried bodies signifying her fear of being ‘found out’ and misdeeds of the past being unearthed.
https://ysp.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/lindsey-mendick
This was a brilliant show, clever, funny, innovative and bonkers! What I love the most about this artist and these works is that she chooses ceramics as her primary material to make her work. Mendick is pushing perceptions of what ceramic art can be, she is using this material in completely new ways, mixing it with other media to create complex, sophisticated but highly relatable art installations that become dioramas for our own lives and experiences. I don't expect to be making work in this way, but I find the notion of pushing the material and changing the narrative on what clay can become very seductive and alluring and this is in itself is a very motivating and exciting notion.
...taking the form of a multi-media installation that investigates dreams, Gothic stories, television and cultural experiences from the 1990s. Bringing the artist's recurring anxiety dream to life, Where The Bodies Are Buried took the form of a decaying house with dark secrets beneath the floorboards.
Works included ceramics and stained glass emerging from the floor as hands, feet and limbs, with a film playing across several screens creating a chorus for simultaneous viewing. Anxiety dreams have long inspired artists and writers, ranging from Eve’s prophetic dream about eating the forbidden fruit in Paradise Lost, to Surrealist paintings and sculpture depicting hauntings and dream-states. The phrase ‘where the bodies are buried’ means to possess information or secrets about a person or organisation. In Mendick’s installation, the secrets are both literal and metaphorical, the buried bodies signifying her fear of being ‘found out’ and misdeeds of the past being unearthed.
https://ysp.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/lindsey-mendick
This was a brilliant show, clever, funny, innovative and bonkers! What I love the most about this artist and these works is that she chooses ceramics as her primary material to make her work. Mendick is pushing perceptions of what ceramic art can be, she is using this material in completely new ways, mixing it with other media to create complex, sophisticated but highly relatable art installations that become dioramas for our own lives and experiences. I don't expect to be making work in this way, but I find the notion of pushing the material and changing the narrative on what clay can become very seductive and alluring and this is in itself is a very motivating and exciting notion.
York Art Gallery May 2023
My first visit to this gallery and there were so many amazing ceramics to see, the wall of women celebrating a history of phenomenal female ceramic artists, the Yorkshire Tea Ceremony collection which showcases the collection of ceramics bequeathed by Bill Ismay to the gallery and the temporary exhibition showing a huge range of piece’s by the late Gordon Baldwin. It was absolutely fab and I found the work of Baldwin so inspiring, his forms are seemingly simple but the construction, use of colour and marks as well as the narratives behind his pieces are fascinating and complex.
Below are some of the works I took photographs of during my visit.
Below are some of the works I took photographs of during my visit.
International Ceramics Festival Aberystwyth 30/06/2023
This was the first ceramic festival I had ever been too, it was a brilliant experience, such a great variety of things to see, do and watch and a chance to mix with fellow ceramic artists and potters, everyone there wanted to chat about pots, it was great!
There were wood firings, lots of different demonstrations, lectures and presentations and a chance to talk to key speakers and artists about their practice. I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture by Greek artist Theodora Chorafas, she combines performance, sculpture and functional pieces into her ceramic practice. Her approach is gentle, purposeful and spiritual, with a desire to reconnect body and mind to the earth, her works are a combination of intricate sculptural pieces sometimes incorporating animal bones or larger delicate forms that work more as an installation. I loved how she spoke about her practice and how it is deeply enmeshed in her life and the place where she lives.
I was fascinated by the weirdly organic plant/alien like sculptures made by Canadian artist Toni Losey, her work is made on the potters wheel and she assembles different rounded pieces together to create these strange forms, she then decorates the surface with several layers of underglaze and glaze that she sprays on and fires repeatedly to create some depth and texture in the surface.
I also really enjoyed the demonstration and lecture by Sharon Griffin, there is a rawness and deep emotional relationship between Sharon and her work, her honesty about her life and where her thoughts and ideas come from was both emotionally evocative and striking and relatable to many people but I feel especially women. There was something both reassuring and brave about how she approaches her practice, on first encounter it may seem chaotic and purely intuitively driven, but there is a complex and sophisticated depth of research that both informs and inspires her work, she uses sketch boks both as a way to jot down thoughts and ideas but also as a journal and I found this very interesting, she is very open about the content and they are available to look through at her shows and events.
It was great to see people who really love the alchemy and excitement of different types of firing, wood firers were seen darting in and out to check the progress and top up the ovens and the raku performance witha giant dragon was full of drama, the whole weekend was very fun, busy and I learned so much.
There were wood firings, lots of different demonstrations, lectures and presentations and a chance to talk to key speakers and artists about their practice. I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture by Greek artist Theodora Chorafas, she combines performance, sculpture and functional pieces into her ceramic practice. Her approach is gentle, purposeful and spiritual, with a desire to reconnect body and mind to the earth, her works are a combination of intricate sculptural pieces sometimes incorporating animal bones or larger delicate forms that work more as an installation. I loved how she spoke about her practice and how it is deeply enmeshed in her life and the place where she lives.
I was fascinated by the weirdly organic plant/alien like sculptures made by Canadian artist Toni Losey, her work is made on the potters wheel and she assembles different rounded pieces together to create these strange forms, she then decorates the surface with several layers of underglaze and glaze that she sprays on and fires repeatedly to create some depth and texture in the surface.
I also really enjoyed the demonstration and lecture by Sharon Griffin, there is a rawness and deep emotional relationship between Sharon and her work, her honesty about her life and where her thoughts and ideas come from was both emotionally evocative and striking and relatable to many people but I feel especially women. There was something both reassuring and brave about how she approaches her practice, on first encounter it may seem chaotic and purely intuitively driven, but there is a complex and sophisticated depth of research that both informs and inspires her work, she uses sketch boks both as a way to jot down thoughts and ideas but also as a journal and I found this very interesting, she is very open about the content and they are available to look through at her shows and events.
It was great to see people who really love the alchemy and excitement of different types of firing, wood firers were seen darting in and out to check the progress and top up the ovens and the raku performance witha giant dragon was full of drama, the whole weekend was very fun, busy and I learned so much.
Maria Bartusova at the Tate Modern Gallery, London January 2023
Bringing together many works rarely exhibited before in the UK, this survey exhibition will highlight the abstract sculptures of Prague-born Slovak artist Maria Bartuszová.
Bartuszová worked over three decades in Košice, the second-largest city in Slovakia. She created around 500 sculptures, from small organic forms to commissions for public spaces as well as works in the landscape, despite restrictions on her artistic life during this period.
The exhibition starts in the 1960s, when Bartuszová experimented using her own distinctive method of casting plaster by hand. Inspired by playing with her young daughter, she created abstract shapes by pouring plaster into rubber balloons – her signature material was white plaster, giving the sculptures a fragile quality.
She shaped the sculptures by pushing, pulling, or submerging them into water, creating unique and distinct shapes. Some suggest raindrops, seeds or eggs, others the human body. Later, she allowed the balloons to burst, creating delicate works similar to cocoons or nests.
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/maria-bartuszova
Ironically, despite working extensively in plaster during my BA in Fine Art, I had never encountered the work of Maria Bartusova, and I was making work in a very similar way using some of the same processes as she was. I love her pieces, I love the curved, smooth undulating forms, I love the way the fit and connect with each other, there is something biomorphic and anthropomorphic about these shapes and I find them both evocative and appealing. I made some rudimentary attempts to recreate in clay some of the forms I had previously made in plaster, and I do still feel like this is something I need to explore further once I complete my MA. There is no doubt that this work, has and continues to influence my creative thinking and I can see the relationship between my earlier work, these influences and the pieces I am endeavouring to make now. It's both supportive and frustrating in equal measure, as there is a sense of never achieving work that is as good as the idea inside your head, but you know the idea is good and the work could be when you eventually find the most truthful translation.
Bartuszová worked over three decades in Košice, the second-largest city in Slovakia. She created around 500 sculptures, from small organic forms to commissions for public spaces as well as works in the landscape, despite restrictions on her artistic life during this period.
The exhibition starts in the 1960s, when Bartuszová experimented using her own distinctive method of casting plaster by hand. Inspired by playing with her young daughter, she created abstract shapes by pouring plaster into rubber balloons – her signature material was white plaster, giving the sculptures a fragile quality.
She shaped the sculptures by pushing, pulling, or submerging them into water, creating unique and distinct shapes. Some suggest raindrops, seeds or eggs, others the human body. Later, she allowed the balloons to burst, creating delicate works similar to cocoons or nests.
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/maria-bartuszova
Ironically, despite working extensively in plaster during my BA in Fine Art, I had never encountered the work of Maria Bartusova, and I was making work in a very similar way using some of the same processes as she was. I love her pieces, I love the curved, smooth undulating forms, I love the way the fit and connect with each other, there is something biomorphic and anthropomorphic about these shapes and I find them both evocative and appealing. I made some rudimentary attempts to recreate in clay some of the forms I had previously made in plaster, and I do still feel like this is something I need to explore further once I complete my MA. There is no doubt that this work, has and continues to influence my creative thinking and I can see the relationship between my earlier work, these influences and the pieces I am endeavouring to make now. It's both supportive and frustrating in equal measure, as there is a sense of never achieving work that is as good as the idea inside your head, but you know the idea is good and the work could be when you eventually find the most truthful translation.
