'spirit box: opuntia' © Hew 240 x 180 x 170mm granite
When I began making this sequence of works, it was like coming up to take a breath of fresh air. For the past four or five years I've been concentrating on large scale collaborative works. The process of creating work for public art commissions is very long requiring an intensely focused 'mindset'; somewhat stoic and plodding. A radical change in scale from the monumental to the very small is liberating. Each work is in effect a self contained novella conceived and executed in a relatively short period of time. Acts of pure indulgence.
My 'spirit box' sculptures spring directly from an ongoing desire as an artist to communicate the inherent spirituality of stone. The only constraints I set myself are that they must originate from a 'natural' boulder and allude to the functional.
'spirit box: chalice' © Hew 295 x 200 x 130mm granite.
'spirit box: catdog' © Hew 215 x 209 x 100mm granite
'spirit box: waterwitch' © Hew 270 x 250 x 140mm granite + sand
'spirit box: gompa' © Hew 280 x 230 x 200mm granite basalt
'spirit box : freud' © Hew