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I would argue that my work is not particularly realistic.

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In the process of making it,

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you do have to move reality around a bit

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and try and step out of that kind of the hyper, hyper real.

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So yeah, sculptures sort of changed for me over the years.

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So when I was younger

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it was just the act of making a cool object.

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And now it seems much more

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like a meditation and a way of understanding the world.

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Yeah.

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My dream as a child was always to work in film.

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Obviously we've seen Ghostbusters

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and all these fantastic films.

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As a young person I would often make,

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try and make these things.

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And in the shed and at home.

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I sort of had a sensibility,

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I think that was a little bit outside

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of the contemporary art world.

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I didn't go to art school.

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I just worked and drew and made things

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but I think the life experience I'd had

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there'd been some major hiccups

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in my mid twenties where I had some real challenges.

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I had a different perspective going through that.

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So I had this sort of vision of my own own head

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but looking at it as an adult and realising what it meant.

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And also the contrast

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between the two objects you've got the head that's alive

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and the head that's no longer with us

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and kind of combining the two as

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if life can easily be, either or, at any given time.

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And the unknown of the right hand side of the skull.

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The process is basically you sculpt the piece in clay

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as you can see clay things here

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and get it as accurate as you can.

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I did take a life cast of my own head

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and I did have a dental cast as well, and a dental x-ray

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which was made it even more disturbing.

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And I foolishly took a cast

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of my own eyeball, which I wouldn't recommend.

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I wouldn't do it again, but just with Alginate, which is

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like a dental, it reasonably safe, but it was uncomfortable.

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I just wanted to get the set

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of the eye as accurate as I could.

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And it meant I could get the size of the eye ball.

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A self portrait is difficult.

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The strange thing is now though, that when I look at it

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I'm looking at a younger person.

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And so it has another issue it's

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like that's confronting as well.

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Yeah, I think sometimes it's liberating as well

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because you look at yourself and go, okay, well

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this is who I am.

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There's nothing I can do about that.

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So just be who you are, but yeah, it is confronting.

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Yeah, definitely.

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I'm always struck by the things where the rhythm

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of life or the cyclic nature of life is demonstrated.

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And I think in nature, you see it a lot.

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I think I've, as time goes on

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I'm experiencing that more and more.

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Even though something can die, it's kind

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of fed immediately back into the growth, the movement.

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And so things like that, woman and child sculpture, again

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was an example

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of a book ended life where you've got both the beginning

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and the end in harmony in some way.

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Also, I like the idea of making it as a symbol as well.

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So you've got something like a crucifix

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which is on one hand, kind of

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it's kind of a horrific image really, but people put them

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in their homes and they give tremendous comfort.

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I mean, eternal life even.

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So what more powerful an image or an object is that?

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And I think wouldn't it be great to be able to

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make a sculpture that had those properties.

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It's almost like magical properties.

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The go beyond just a nice object

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or something to put in the fancy apartment.

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I don't know.

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So I think the themes always go back to that.

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I always like symbols.

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Symbols that kind of allude to something.

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And I like the idea

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that it offers something else and I don't always get it.

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Sometimes I get close to it

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and the dream is one day I'll nail it, but we'll see.