Black Mountain Bronze

Bronze is contemporary and yet has strong echoes deep within our evolutionary past. The casting of bronze is a raw and elemental process that can be achieved around a campfire with beeswax and clay or in sophisticated foundries using high tech furnaces and technical materials. At the heart of the process is the transformative slight of hand, like fossilisation where one object becomes another under the influence of extreme heat. Organic materials or wax are replaced by bronze in the casting process, via a combination of intention, earth and fire. Finishing and colouring bronze is equally transformative, raw metal through the crude exposure to the weather, seawater or sophisticated of chemical sequences and heat comes to life with rich, lustrous and intense colours. NEW WORKS I love the physicality of sculpture both of the process and the materials. Before setting up my bronze foundry in 2015 I trained and practiced as a ceramic artist. Working wax, is a visceral process; how I feel in the act of creation and my responses to the emerging piece dictate the outcome. I suspend conscious engagement and hold the sense of where something is going for as long as possible without interpretation. I believe that a work of art can offer a mirror to the soul for both the maker and the observer. How we respond to a work tells us something about ourselves. For this reason I am encouraged to explore new areas of work and challenge the viewer to consider their response to all types of work, paying attention to what they like as much as well as what they find uncomfortable.