Art and Illusion

2012

“Should we not say that we make a house by the art of building and by the art of painting we make another house, a sort of man-made dream produced for those who are awake?”

Plato – The Sophist

This essay concerns illusion and how I have used it to convey the magic of the messages left to us from the past.  I was born, as are others, with a web of myth, history and tales, spun around me.  Gradually as I grow, I spin my own web.  It is this journey that has been the catalyst for the Sculpturescapes that I have been making during my sculpture diploma at Heatherleys over the last two years.

Growing up in an old 12th Century monastery, I was surrounded by atmospheres of varying kinds.  Dark, dank underground passages, old musty wine cellars, dripping, seeping walls where monks and succeeding generations walked under the mere to their secret destinations.  Light was unpredictable and there was always a sense of mystery about any journey and the relief total when I gained the sanctuary of people and a warm fire.  The house was half lived-in and half derelict, rotting away, the outside appearing through holes in the timbered walls and roof.  Old remnants of curtains and wallpapers were blown about by the draughts.  This place exuded the smell of the past.

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