2023 and a new start.

It was way back in 2017 that I stopped posting to this website. Work/family commitments and limit income left me with little time to devote to my art, it was with deep regret that I stopped producing and writing about my sculpture.

It’s now six years on, and after 18 years of working for a local authority I’m taking early voluntary retirement. I’m not totally out of the woods as far as work is concerned – I will still have to earn my crust well beyond pensionable age – but what I will doing next is less physical and from the comfort of my own home. It will also allow me time to rekindle old passions, this time not for profit or as way out of a dead end job. The day has come that I can finally do this for fun!

My focus however will steer away from relief sculpting (not for ever), but I need to explore other areas of creativity. To that end I will be producing figures that are a hybrid of doll art and stop motion puppets. These figures will be 1/12 scale, and made from mixed media.

The concept is create a story around each piece, allowing me follow my other passion – that of story telling.

I will not be producing work for sale (as I have been in the past) this is purposely as I need to work at my own speed and not produce items for a targeted market; basically stuff that which I have to force an interest in. I feel this will be more liberating and ultimately more rewarding.

So this is the test piece. Sure it does not have figure sitting in it (it may never), but it is something that I made out of recycled cardboard and a few scraps of cloth. I made it whilst sick with Covid, and it is about the happiest moment I can ever remember sitting down and making something? No references, no plans, no pressure. Truly a trinity of liberation on the path to creative bliss…

Until the next time…

…I wish you all good health and happiness.

-Rich