As the last few days of sanity diminish before the trudge back to a dark place beckon , its time to reflect on what has been a few months of enormous changes in my art and life. Great new opportunities have opened for commission work and sales are picking up , even though the UK in a recession. My new studio design is becoming a reality over the next few weeks and plans for the next while , cemented , to keep me focussed on my dreams and ambitions. And new avenues of expression have been explored in terms of simplification of form as opposed to over detailing , one of my traps that I often fall into when carving or sculpting....I have forced myself to leave the form to create its own essence through its shape and not the detail. My new teak bird and Pensive Man , uploaded previously , exemplify that characteristic. The word compromise is never far from creative individuals and often grates across a myriad of entrenched values that we uphold in the creative process , and for me, the next 12 months will be a real compromise as my life changes format and direction and my patience is pushed to the maximum level within a system that is testing in every sense of the word.

As creative people we abhor losing control in our own lives and being pushed and pulled in directions contrary to the flux we love to float in ...that's art I guess, and when lack of freedom and choice and simple democratic process is ignored, the creative in us starts to drown and doesn't function.
Within creating, I enjoy working at my pace, planning and designing work and running with the process from start to finish. I in reality own the outcome....its when outcomes in my life are suddenly being decided by others who begin to cross the line into destiny and forced outcome ...that gets my "spider senses prickling!"

Over the last few months I,ve been witness to some awful manipulation of human character and politics that have changed so many lives in a ripple effect...at times I have been a passive observer to this feature in human behaviour and while at other moments felt the "Turnerisque Storm" within... the next few weeks will be interesting....will upload the new bird form later today....