A life Described by Sculpture

As a sculptor working in stone, I spend a lot of time looking at carvings in churches and Cathedrals and try to continually expand my understanding of sculpture both old and new. It is from this research, mixed with my own experience and creative thought that helps me develop the memorial pieces designed and made at Elysium Memorials.

The sculptures I design have to:

• Reflect the person they represent first and foremost, their life is the motivation for the sculpture.
• Be a good piece of sculpture, aesthetically and practically. Well designed and made to the highest quality both in artistry and materials.
• Fit the site for the sculpture, where it is placed is very important.
• Work with a given budget and timeframe.

Last year I was lucky enough to visit the Henry Moore foundation in Hertfordshire. I have always admired his work, but I didn’t expect for the trip to his house and studios to have quite such an impact on me. As I say, making sculpture based around people’s lives is what I do, but here was this great man’s whole life in sculpture laid out before me.

You could begin to see how he worked, what inspired him, how the pieces were developed and made, you could even see where he lived in his modest house rammed to the rafters with wonderful artefacts. You could see he had to tackle requests as I do, but on a huge scale. I felt an incredible connection with the man having seen his life’s work and how he never stopped researching and developing new directions and ideas. He was the greatest British artist of the 20^th century, but in the time I spent at the wonderful Henry Moore Foundation, it was Henry Moore the man I felt I had got to know through his sculpture and by what inspired him.