Tuesday 29 May 2007

The Miner


This work has recently been bought by the University of Glamorgan for their permanent collection.
Im quite sad to see it go in a way, the Miner had become part of my family!
Half of this work was salvaged from a skip ouside my local pub, it was the pub that my grandfather regularly had a pint or two in ( I never met my Grandfather as as he died before I was born, in fact he died when my father was just a teenager and so my father took on the role, rather relunctantly! as breadwinner for his family. My dad went to grammer school which was quite an achievement considering his background, but was forced to leave education due to his Fathers early death,)
The found wood I have used for this artwork therefore is a kind of reaching out to a limb from my family tree...toward reaching my grandfather.The same bit of bar is also where my own father had his first pint. In a way it was my Father also revisiting his past in that he frequented the place is father once visited. My concern with all this is the personal history that an inaminate object can possess. there must be some dna of my grandfather in that artwork of mine...well i was glad to sell it obviously for the money, but i lost my connection with my grandfather too...i hope this makes sense...?