THE SCULPTOR'S WIFE

The rebel within

“Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”

George Orwell.

Trust me to stumble into the farmer after knowingly not keeping to the path. I’ve never been much of a rule breaker. Born conformist? I think some would disagree as I have made choice that perhaps are not so. Give me instructions and I will follow them. Search for truth and stick to it. When I do try to go off the beaten track my conscience gives me a good slap around the face. Having a rare Saturday afternoon to myself, boys with grandma, I’ve done my yoga practise and packed up a small backpack with book, an apple and a bottle of water ready for a solitary ramble. I decide to take a route where I know there will be a few benches along the way to sit and read a while. I chose a perch I had forgotten about but was in the direct sunlight, as despite feeling like a spring day it was still a chilly early February afternoon.

After being startled by a friendly robin, scaring a rabbit and spying a horse and a llama I follow a new path to explore a different direction. Undeterred by the very obvious bridge over the stream to my left I continue through the field ahead feeling the rebellious urge to go through the muddy fields. Naughtily and feeling a little like Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit I squeeze myself under the barbed wire and fling myself over the fence. I enjoy these small cheap thrills. I start to wonder what the penalty for not keeping on the path is and why one can’t just walk where you want to. I started to envisage Mr McGregor with a shot-gun still I wasn’t deterred but would definitely not be able to run should that occur as the ground was like ‘quick mud’. Adding to the excitement of my private adventure. Sometimes we do need to question the path we take in order to find ourselves.

I felt relief when I saw the wooden public footpath sign in the corner of the field ahead. Stopping to take a picture of a furry caterpillar to show the boys distracted me from seeing the farmer with his two dogs approaching through the gate. “Braved the beck did ya” he mumbled in his thick yorkshire accent. Not following what he meant and in my naive honesty and perhaps to relieve my conscience admitted to coming through the field. As long as I hadn’t cut the tie or the wire no harm done I think I grasped. Though his explanation of where the path actually was I still couldn’t fathom. Regardless, I think it may have been too overgrown and slippery steep to actually have followed. Are you local he asked. Yes I replied I live in co-ling or cowing I am still not sure how to say it. I will by some maps and stick to the road now I pledged. Smiling I walked to the sculptor’s studio realising I hadn’t been there in a while and it was on the route home.

The air inside a stark contrast to the fresh crisp air I had been deeply inhaling realising that much of the time I forget to breath when I am with my boys. Yoga helping with that! The studio felt toxic but looked a lived in proper working space, without a corner vacant of creation. In my eyes a mess but a place of activity, equipment and ideas for sure. My husband unveiled his bike to show me its purring engine but in the process flooded the tank. It’s over a year since he went to pick it up and I only briefly mentioned it in ‘Beauty’ then never posted about it again. There is something symbolic about a bike being a rebellious vehicle, even purchasing one feels like breaking the ‘norm’. In some ways he is the opposite of me when it comes to rule abiding. I remember in our first year together when he was teaching me drawing he instructed that you had to learn the rules in order to break them, that was what art was about. I can’t seem to do that though. My nature inclines to searching for rules in order to follow. We balance each other out, probably, on the scales of conformity and rebellion and meet on the same conscious awareness.

Here are the images of the bike, turned into a sculpture of sorts in its own way. Always questioning the rebel within.

“Discover tomorrow’s art stars today”

‘Discover tomorrow’s art stars today’ is the tag line of Saatchi art’s feature on 7 artists they suggest you invest in this year. My husband is one of them. Yippeee!!! I have put this link up on my Facebook page so sorry for the repetition but for those of you on word press it was a little update of news.

You can see the feature on:

Invest in art the feature by Rebecca Wilson, curator and also on Creative Pool a magazine which has covered it.

Image used for the Saatchi feature. ‘The Bench’ outside Cartwright Hall Art Gallery.

The yoga in art

'Mother and Child' — ‘Mother and Child’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: Sukhasana

…or the art in yoga, art of yoga, yoga of art? I can’t decide which is more appropriate.

yoga pose — ‘Conversation with a bird’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: Paripurna Navasana

I have moments where I make discoveries, like little light bulb moments. Ones where you want to stand on the roof tops or a mountain and shout it out loud. Well, I say that but I can’t imagine myself doing that even if there was nobody watching. The point is something clicks and then you want that something to click for everyone else. You know those things are going to help transform you. However, I have also come to learn that you can’t make other people have that click, they too have to discover it for themselves. I guess that is what makes us all different and what works for some of us doesn’t for others.

art and yoga — ‘The pommel horse’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: SvargaDvidasana

So using this blog as my mountain to shout from, my most recent discovery is yoga. It is helping me with a whole manner of things. Carving out time for myself everyday, exercise a little, focus on a better diet and helping me digest. It gives me balance. Balance in all things. The more we are able to physically balance our bodies and manage our breath it seems to give space to allow us to flow through the motions of everyday tasks with a greater ease.

stretch art — ‘Discus’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose:Parivrtta Trikonasana

The pace of life is so fast these days that we need time to stop and connect to our breath, to be aware of what is happening around us rather than going through the motions mindlessly. Stretching out is something I realised I needed to do. We can focus on energizing ourselves and in turn this gives us more energy for others.

‘The gymnast' — ‘The gymnast’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: AdhoMukhaVrksasana

My husband’s work is primarily focused on the human body, the human figure. It is what sculptors have focused on for centuries. With the aim of minimising, you can see a progression through theses images from earlier work to most recent work attempting to strip down the body to a simple line. Each showing movement and flow. What is fundamental in each piece though is balance and a harmony of lines vertically and horizontally.

the bow yoga pose — ‘The Bow’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: Garbhasana

I gave myself a 30 days of yoga challenge at the start of the year which has helped me transition from the warmth of Egypt at the end of the year to grey January in the UK. I would definitely recommend the energizing and enthusiastic Yoga with Adriene which I have been doing online for a while. Amazingly she takes live classes in an art gallery which as they are in Austin, Texas I am unable to get to! but in finding that out that discovered there are lots of yoga classes taking place in gallery spaces – what a great idea. Can’t find any in the UK though?

Body lang 1 — ‘Body Language’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: Ardha Matsyendrasana

The images of my husband’s work are all of body movements I have roughly labelled them with a yoga pose, but they are by no means accurate. I am sure yogi experts would make corrections. Please do. Yoga was not the thinking behind the design of these sculptures but there are such strong connections. There is a beautiful mind, body, spirit link between yoga and art. Take the time to slow down and meditate on life, meaning, yoga and art.

Namaste

Doubts and dreams.

“I don’t believe anyone ever suspects how completely unsure I am of my work and myself and what tortures of self-doubting the doubt of others has always given me.” ― Tennessee Williams

All artists have self doubts.

My husband often has his doubts and uncertainties simultaneously with a very clear dream and extraordinarily clear talent. The moment of finding his style was a pivotal point. Not in no longer having those doubting moments but more determined.

It is amazing how just taking a moment to stop and observe can help you clear your mind. As I ate my particularly prepared porridge and looked out the window, I captured a moment. A bird perched in a tree finding shelter from the wind. How much protection it found? I wondered, as the tree danced with the movement of the strong gusts on this cold and blustery January morning.

Even within language we may not all be visualising the same thing. If we say ‘tree’, what type of tree is it. What are you thinking of? A willow drooping low and forlorn, a palm reaching energetically tall, a busy evergreen, a strong oak with branches stretching outwards. Is it a tree made out ladies legs? What concept do we have in our own mind’s eye.

bird branch — **‘The Branch’ will be shown at FLUX , The Rag Factory. London. FEB 18th-22nd**

It is easy to think of trees as strong and immoveable. As the numerous branches move like dancing arms outside it makes me understand that nothing remains the same. Everything is moving, flowing, shaking, changing.

I had a big writers wobble the other day after reading my brother’s newly formed blog. I had a sudden large wave of self-doubt as I compared my own skills with his, unfavourably. Immediately seeing his confident youthful writing style as superior to my own rather than thinking that it is just a different way of writing.

sketch doubts — ‘A sketch’ by Sam Shendi

Perhaps a tiny slip of the deadly envy creeped in or a little bit of sibling rivalry but it didn’t last long. I don’t harbour bad and unnecessary feelings for long. Especially towards my younger brother to whom I am maternally overprotective of. I used it positively. It made me realise that I had to focus on my own style and my own direction.

Observing nature helped too, the bird in the tree. We all have moments where we doubt ourselves. The wind shakes the branches of our spirit a little. It makes us grow and develop. My brother who is writing about his recent travels, tells me he hasn’t changed. People don’t change. Perhaps travel doesn’t change us. I think though, if the experience doesn’t change us then time will. Travelling inwardly to the depths of our soul should change us. If we want to change the world then we have to start with ourselves.

‘Conversation with a bird’ by Sam Shendi

I have read lots of beautifully brilliantly written blogs over the last four years, here are 8 I would recommend:

http://outsideairblog.com/ https://knowthesphere.wordpress.com/

http://winterowls.com/ https://pathsofthespirit.wordpress.com/

https://ittosjournal.wordpress.com/ http://wharnsby.com/

https://haywardhelen.wordpress.com/ https://emmasouthlondon.wordpress.com/

“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.”- Robert Hughes. Perhaps. I guess it is one of those emotions, it is only human. ‘Only Human’ my husband’s exhibition at Cartwright Hall will end on 23rd February. So one more month to go and view it.

So my mantra for this month. Stop doubting and start daring to dream.

sketchbooks display — ‘Sketchbooks’ on display at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery

cellar gallery — ‘Only Human’ exhibition at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery

10 reasons why you should buy a piece of sculpture

1. You have the money.

2. You have the space.

3. You have a big house.

4. You want more than a decorative item.

5. You connect to the piece.

6. You can see something different from every angle (even if it is a solid cuboid!)

7. Not just for you, but for everyone around you.

8. It is a reminder of the time you live in.

9. It is a legacy both in itself and it becomes your legacy.

10. Put it in a room with a chair and sit and watch it. Who needs TV?

…..sculpture is not a materialistic object that you must have or need to have but it can raise your awareness and elevates your being. Why would you buy a sculpture?

Sending Sculptures

Just before we went away we had exciting news that ‘The Kiss’ had sold through Saatchi Online. This really eased our holiday and return back to business. The arrangements for shipment were made for Friday 9th so my husband had time to prepare the sculpture, flat pack it and pack it up. I was really impressed by his precision and arrangement for the packing. This series of work has always been my favourite but the fact that it can be flat packed to ship I think could be the way to go! After printing out all the necessary paper work, the DHL driver arrived on time but took one look and lift and refused to take it. The volume weight was larger than had been booked. I tried to rearrange it but we had to go back to Saatchi.

So a quick email to Saatchi USA was sent, but of course due the time difference they wouldn’t be opening until 5pm our time. So we made a few phone calls and left some messages. Finally we got a call at 9pm on Friday evening to check if the package had been collected. So it was just luck they called us. After emails and reprinting labels it was finally collected on Monday so yesterday we said goodbye to ‘The Kiss’ and sent it to Panama. Not sure that the driver instilled much confidence when he recounted another delivery of a precious stone horse that he delivered where the head fell off in the unpacking. Might have to do constant tracking…

At the same time that we were in communication with Saatchi online we were emailing back and forth about the next potential sale with ‘The Hay Hill Gallery’. Last week after picking up ‘The Family’ from Berkley square, whilst doing so my husband said he brushed by a gentlemen dressed in a long grey coat and tight jeans and the “stains of snobbiness” dripped on the floor behind him. HIs account of this interaction to me just one of his social observations that he continually notices. Instead of bringing ‘The Family’ back to Yorkshire as planned it got taken across to Hay Hill gallery and was left there, within 48 hours there was a potential buyer. The work is really on a journey now. It’s been a successful start to 2015 and with the sculptor being busy I am in the shop. Hoovering, dusting and washing up have dropped to the bottom of my priority list. I wonder if we sell another piece we could afford a cleaner?

Sun, sea, sand sculptures ( and some ancient writing on the wall)

Years used to be punctuated in school holidays, more so because my parents were both teachers. Gradually this shifted in my 20’s to January being a month of heavy diary entries, promises to improve and a new way of seeing the world. Last year a list of three things. The first I achieved daily, the second a little in the last two weeks of the year and I can’t even remember what the third one was. Such is the way of resolutions.

2015 has begun in cocoon not even realising a sense of time or day. 18 days of sunshine, with sea air was the tonic to an intense and busy four years. I sat starting out at sea and wondered why we like to find peace in vast open nothingness. I heard somewhere that the sea is the world’s consciousness. Perhaps, we stare at the blank blue canvas which give us a mirror to our own conscious being. For the boys the days on the beach with the sculptor were playing and digging resulting in these:

Now we have to dig in and start again or get back on the treadmill of reality. So I slowly uncurl after being spoilt with an amazing trip and focused family time. Having been in the sun and coming back to the cold is a little disorinatating and the new year seems meaningless. It has made me realise how arbitory time is. When we looked at the creations of the ancient Egyptians the mind blowing factor was just how long ago it was created and that it was all for the afterlife. The creativity of humanity with the drawings and the pigmentation within the desert showed their skill and precision and search for meaning.

Each time I go to Egypt I learn something, somehow the country challenges your comfort zones. Perhaps this is more so because my husband is Egyptian and this time I realised more than ever that I am raising two Egyptian boys. They thrived in the heat, they learnt some arabic and displayed their social skills meeting family for the first time and making friends everywhere they went. I embrace this for them, the uniqueness of having two cultures so diverse and so contrasting and hope that they can use the best of both for themselves. I have lots of little anecdotes and stories but feel it would make this too long. We are back to the every day life of juggling work and art. The boys struggled last night knowing Baba was going away, even just for one night, having had such quality time with him. The Sculptor is already in London collecting the appropriately named; ‘The Family’ from it’s stay in Berkley square London and this last week has been busy packaging up ‘The Kiss’ which we say goodbye to and send to Panama on its new journey.

So we use the ancient writing on the wall to move forward, the sun’s energy to give us strength to get through a grey January and the thoughts of the sea to develop our consious awareness. It’s the start of a busy year for the sculptor and so for all of us on this journey of art and meaning.

Season’s Greetings

I thought that once both boys were in school I would have more time to write, but it seems I have had more time to do everything else and even less time to write! I think this term has seen less entries than ever (not that I am counting). The art work keeps being produced by the ever busy sculptor. More meetings and contacts keep being made, making it a little confusing to know in what direction we are heading and who we need to help us. In some cases it is really clear and in others it’s hard to know who is taking the benefit.

The temperature dropped last week and so the sculptor is starting to freeze. However, we are all a little giddy at the moment getting ready for a first big holiday to Egypt in four years. In fact, the last time we were away was when I hatched the idea for this blog. This week I have been writing various emails and on the notice we’ve put on the shop door adding “Seasons Greetings”. My husband asked me what it meant…. I was a little stumped. It is of course a spoken or written greeting commonly used before or during the Christmas holiday. Then, true to form with my grammatical errors I discovered it isn’t seasons greetings, it’s ‘season’s greetings’. In Western cultures the late autumn and early winter contain a number of holidays associated with the ideals of peace, plenty, the joy of family and friends and the spread of goodwill and understanding. Season’s Greetings is a phrase which encompass all of this as wish of all these good things from the speaker to the person they are addressing.

4 years writing and 4 years of waiting to return to the waters of the Nile, we fly of to Africa where we will be saying ” greetings of peace” to people. I wish you all a ‘Happy Holiday’ and greetings of peace, joy and goodwill and many thanks for reading this journal of sorts over the last 4 years.

aiko — ‘New work, part of collection – more about it in 2015’

Speech and sandwiches

This post has been hovering in the save box for to long- I had completely forgotten I needed to upload the images.

The focus of the half term holiday came at the end when my husband gave a speech at Cartwright Hall alongside members of The Royal British Sculptor’s society (RBS) who came up from London to talk about public art and my husband’s piece in the park which won the Public Art Award FIRST@108 last year. It had been sat neatly in front of The RBS building in London for 8 months and in the summer moved to Lister Park where it is now being physically interacted with heavily by the local community.

This issue came up in discussion, about the placement of public art and public response to it. We have been through a whole gambit of emotions in our reaction to people climbing, jumping , sitting and scratching on all three of the pieces there. Ultimately though overriding any upset and anger, it is a great opportunity to have the work seen, interacted with and is a huge stepping stone and milestone in the journey. It was a gloriously sunny day and a great opportunity for those who had come to the talk to see the work outside.

I was so nervous for my husband as we hadn’t scripted anything and I was worrying if he would stumble, falter or ramble. In my unnecessary preoccupation with his preparation, I totally forgot to do what I usually do best and think about food. It was a lunchtime talk starting at 1pm and we arrived in the grounds at 12, I had a bag of cheddars and a satsuma each for the boys thinking that would keep them going after a late breakfast. However, I hadn’t anticipated how long we would stay the talk lasted an hour and a half and as there were a good 40 plus people there we had lots of conversations afterwords. So we were still there at 3.3opm and our youngest was practically passing out. ‘Where were the sandwiches??’ I had packed plenty for the big draw two days earlier but my mind just hadn’t moved passed the 1pm speech!

The boys sat beautifully and patiently whilst they listened to the talk and I was so proud of them and my husband. It was perhaps a good thing we hadn’t over rehearsed a speech, it was natural and humourous and he did really well at conveying what he wanted to say about his practice, the development of his style and the award he had won. It was a memorable day, next time I just need to remember some sandwiches.

NB: Exhibition Launch at Cartwright Hall this Sunday 30th November 1pm

Drawing upon Drawing

So much has been happening of late that I haven’t had time to finish a blog entry. I was thinking of merging them into one but will try to be focused and get it done in two.

The sculptor has had various interesting meetings recently which included a workshop for the first time which went well. It was focused on his exhibition and for the participants to create a sculpture but he wanted the group to focus on drawing their idea first. A large collection of work went in a restaurant in the middle of Bradford city centre, and that followed with a radio interview for BBC Radio Leeds. (Sound bite will only last for the night 3 days and he is speaking at roughly 40.43).

The sculptor talking about ‘drawing’ at the responses to art workshop

We all went for ‘The Big Draw’ at Cartwright Hall during half term and had well over 100 people draw on huge paper which we intended to wrap around the building but it was too windy on the day when we wee finishing. It was really interesting to see patterns in drawing.

_DSC4401 — Four year olds drawing of people, The BIg Draw 29th October

Lots of 4-year-old drawing circles, dots and lines to represent bodies. Parents drawing houses, some finding inspiration from their family. A grandparent sat for a good while some fantastic shading in of a beautiful snail his granddaughter had drawn. A young boy drew his fish tank with amazing detail and a family came in to warm up from the park and covered their paper in ducks and birds and visions inspired by Lister Park. Upstairs in the gallery Tim Curits , another local artist who does lots of drawing in his own practise, they were looking at a college and self portraits and making pictures of themselves with newspaper. Drawing upon a lovely collection of Hockney’s drawings and college work. Our eldest, feeling comfortable to roam the gallery by himself went to see what was happening in Tim’s workshop and usually keen to do anything creative declined out of loyalty to Baba downstairs. It was the first time for my husband to do this community art workshop event. We had thought that we would ask family to look at each other and draw each other , perhaps looking at the style of my husband’s sculpture. However, when its a drop in and the numbers fluctuate with busier times and quieter times it was just good to see people sitting and drawing and not being too prescriptive.

The gallery was a hive of activity and what was also interesting was seeing on one wall in the Hockney exhibition, all the drawings were hung at child’s eye level and there were little drawings of Hockney to find around the exhibition. So with the Big Draw event, Julia Donaldson exhibition and curators hanging work directly for children there is no better place or time to introduce children to the wold of museums and galleries so I totally agree with Jake Chapman and his quite ridiculous statement about children and galleries.

_DSC4442 — Our eldest’s drawing at The bIg draw event at Cartwright

Children aren’t suddenly going to want to go to an art gallery at 18 if they have been ousted in infancy. Art and drawing is already squeezed out of the main stream too much. Drawing is such an important and valuable skill and something we forget to continue to do as we grow older. With my husband and eldest constantly drawing it is something that happens in our house naturally but something I personally don’t take time to do. After such a busy half term the house is in a state where I have drawers to wash, draws to put things away into, we have been rushing around so much and leaving a mess.

I noticed this morning a sudden drop in temperature, the skyline grey and wintry. Like shades of newly sharpened pencils crisp and fresh. Time to sit down, wrap up and draw.

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