Introducing myself

[Dominic Welch <D.Welch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

By way of an introduction I present to you all, whether
you like it or not, with an early draft of a statement I
am trying to write about my work. In brief, if you
understandably don't want to plough through it, I am a
sculptor working in stone !!

I would welcome any comments on the grammar, readability
etc of this, but am far more interested in hearing from
other sculptors and about their work.
Happy reading!

Statement Draft.

I began making sculpture in 1989, initially through
assisting the sculptor Peter Randall-Page, in his Devon
studio.The ongoing process of working with Peter, as
well as other sculptors, has strongly influenced my
work, although increasingly I am developing my own style
and vocabulary of form.

This introduction to sculpture through an active
apprenticeship has been a quite different approach to
the more common contemporary art school education.
Although  often criticised for being too traditional and
confined, not just in the use of stone as its main
medium, but also by using nature as a main source of
ideas and inspiration, there now appears to be a growing
awareness of the whole tradition of carving stone, as
well as the importance of artists learning their trade
 from a 'master'.

This kind of master/apprentice relationship can cause
problems in the recognition of the students work in its
own right. My sculpture, with reference to it's
relationship to Peter's, has certainly started from the
same point, and indeed shares many of the basic
principles stated below. However there is a continual
evolution and development in the expression of my ideas
that makes my own carvings recognisable and distinctive.

The underlying principle in my work is a development and
exploration  of form, and more specifically organic
form. It is an attempt to realise sculpture that has a
rightness and a strength of presence without necessarily
being identifiable or easy to label. Investigating these
organic, fertile and evolving forms, and the potential
they hold, in a fixed medium such as stone creates an
intriguing paradox.

The inherent qualities of stone, its inert coldness and
solidity,when used to imply the feeling of softness and
ripeness and contained life, create an energy and
tension in the surface of the form which is hard to
communicate through other media. Smooth polished
surfaces as well as roughly textured and raw,
hand-carved areas are wonderfully tactile and suggestive
when conveying warm, sensuous forms. The primeval
properties of stone, as well as its durability, also add
resonance.

Initially these ideas were realised in simple relief
carvings of repeated spiralling patterns. I am now
concentrating on carving simple forms and then
inscribing designs and motifs into their surface. There
is an infinite range of directions in which these ideas
can be taken, and rather than just attempting to
faithfully reproduce the familiar objects and structures
found in nature, I hope to move closer to the essence of
the themes I draw upon most: implicit life, movement,
evolution, sensuousness, fertility and aesthetic beauty.

I try not to limit myself to one narrow avenue of
exploration, but rather pursue several related lines of
thought, so that these complex relief patterning and
designs can go hand in hand with very simple rounded and
organic forms. These two contrasting methods , the
attempt to form a balance between them, as well as the
difficult challenge of representing them in stone, forms
the central premise to my work at the moment.

But far more difficult is trying to put it all in to
words!