Pagoda Stack

Pagoda Stack, originally uploaded by ...escher....

If you wish to read about the rock sculptures then go here for the writeup about what I made today. If you want to read mad ramblings then stay right here as you'll find plenty... :-)


There is something that my art gives to me that I find quite hard to explain. It gives me little insights into the world and into myself but they happen without me knowing I am looking for them. Often after I create something I learn something that I was not searching for or expected to reveal. I suppose many artists have questions they want to answer and they use their art to search for resolutions. But with mine I regularly find out that there are things being revealed by accident. It is almost like my subconcious mind is opened and things come out that I did not expect nor was looking for. It is only now that I have realised that art allows you to learn about oneself. I only found this out by practicing art and I had no idea that that is the way it would be.

Recently I have been taking a break. I have been reading lots of art history and looking at symbology from around the world to try and open my mind to more wider influences. Doing these things has given me some space to think about my own art and as this new year begins and spring approaches I feel like I have consolidated what I have learnt over the past year and feel that I am ready to begin again and learn much more.

I am trying to peel back a new layer by starting to investigate how the seasons affect me personally. Of course my art reflects the seasons, the colours and materials available are my pallete with which to express but it is starting to become clear to me that the changes in season actually affect me physiologically and this is also expressed through what I make. How exactly, I don't know but I want to learn more about that this year.

I came to this conclusion as I have entered the doldrums on two occasions in the past year, whilst being quite prolific the rest of the time. As summer turned to spring and since the turn of the year I have felt unable to muster any inspiration but as the nights draw back and spring draws nearer I feel the passion returning and I am convinced that this is more than just one-of-those-things and it is tied in with the change of the seasons. After all we are creatures of this world and under its influence just the same as anything else that lives along with us.

Anyway - normal coverage has been resumed. And if you have made it this far, and managed to get through these mid-winter musings then I have something important to share with you.

I am attracted by colours and my art nearly always involves spotting something I like that grabs my attention and then making something with it. Today it was grouse poo.

Well no not really. But there was a lot of it on the fell today and in a world of brown and grey, brightly coloured grouse poo did seem attractive. I noticed that depending on its age the colours changed and I was so very tempted to create a colour fade with it. I am a little worried that I am becoming a little obsessed and when that happens I just have to make whatever is in my mind for fear of going insane. I can envisage a whole series of poo land art with such broad scope for different ideas. And through the study I can learn about what all the different creatures eat and bring a whole new dimension to it through the sense of smell. And before you know it a whole new field of land art will be born. And that field may have cows, sheep or chickens in it. And of course poo...

Now I expect you want to know about these rock stacks? Well they are just stacked bits of rock! There is nothing new to learn here not while there is grouse poo to collect...