Below are some of the sculptures that I did whilst at Art College.
I spent a few years at Art College. I think it was from 1991 to 1994, or 1995. How I ended up there was purely by chance. I was in my last year at secondary school. I knew in my heart that I wanted to do something creative after leaving school, but I had no idea on how to realise that. My parents couldn't help me with this as I think that they just couldn't understand why I was so interested in horror/monster films and weird stuff. It was all completely alien to them. My dad wanted me to go into the building trade as he said "There'll always be work for brick-layers, joiners, plumbers and electricians." He was right. People in those jobs earn a lot these days. If I'd taken his advice, the odds are I would now be in a much better position financially. But my heart wanted art. Sorry, I know that sounds cheesey.
My teachers at school were, for the most part, no help at all. With the exception of one teacher, none of them really cared about anything. Most of them seemed to actively hate children and were pretty abusive towards them: physically, mentally, and verbally. The one good teacher was my CDT (craft, design, technology) or woodwork class teacher. For my GCSE I made a weight-lifting bench, with leg extensions, and an extra frame on the back for doing squats. I designed it and welded it all together and it turned out pretty good. Because of that, he suggested me to a local company for an apprenticeship as a Toolsmith or Tool-Maker. It paid a lot. But I turned it down because by then I'd set my heart on going to the local College of Art. This came about from a visit to my school by a careers guidance officer from the local council, and she actually took the time to ask me about what I was interested in. What would be my dream job? When I told her what I loved, she then showed me a brochure for the Art College showcasing the Theatre Crafts course. On this course they made things that were really appealing to me. So that was where I wanted to go. My art teacher at school laughed at me when I said this. My parents were pretty unhappy that I'd turned down the toolsmith job. My dad especially. And his brothers. They thought Art College was a place for hippies and freaks and that I should get a proper job. In my town, at that time, if you dressed a little differently, had weird interests, and grew your hair long, then you were a target. When I was eighteen I got severely beaten-up and was in hospital, just because I was 'one of those freaks'. One of my eyes was hurt so bad, I thought I was going to be blind in it.
Below is a sculpture that I did for a prehistoric fish, again whilst still at college. I made a plaster mould of this, but never got around to reproducing one from it. To be honest, the joins on the mould were pretty messy. I was helped making the mould from a guy who worked part-time at the art college teaching the 3D students. He ran his own company making displays for museums. When he got a contract for a dinosaur exhibition, he offered me some paid work sculpting. However, it only lasted two weeks, once he realised that he could get other students to work for free and class it as work experience through the college. Some time after he'd fired me, he contacted me again to ask if he could borrow my mould for the prehistoric fish as he wanted to make one for the exhibit. I said that I would make him one, for a price. He wasn't happy with that and refused.
This last one is the only photo that I have of this piece as it had a very unfortunate accident before I completed it. I wanted to sculpt some sort of gill-man, so came up with this. I thought of it as some kind of soldier, so gave it armour plates over its head, like a helmet.
And then there's this.
