My process is organic. Shapes and ideas have emerged as I’ve carved. Meditations on form and space influence my creative choices in the moment of creation. References to new beginnings, birth, sensuality, femininity, touchstones, antiquity, neolithic tools and primeval instinct were all prevalent whilst creating this series.

 

Chalk is part of our local landscape and is an under appreciated resource. Local and plentiful, it has shaped so much of our national identity but is normally overlooked in Suffolk. There is a responsibility to working with a medium that has taken so long to form and will not be replenished, certainly in our lifetime. Beautiful to carve, delicate and sensitive it’s smooth like silk in the hands.

 

I only recently began working with stone, inspired by the endurance of physical objects that have been weathered by the seasons of nature and have endured time. I view stone as a palimpsest, trapping meaning and mapping geological story, within its shape and form. Thoughts of legacy and the fear of being forgotten has played a role in my decision to work with stone. There is a permanence to working with stone that is absent in other mediums.

 

I was aware that sculpting stone was altering something that had been formed over millennia. I have considered elemental forces and how they have shaped the raw materials. Working with stone evokes thoughts of the power of patience and elongates my perspective of time. Whilst sculpting I pictured the wind carving desert stone and water forming pebbles, churning them over and over until small and smooth.