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"Paisley Date Palm" Ceramic 1999
"Contour Map, Mount Iwate" 1998 Pencil/Paper
"Volcano & Flower Bud" 1998 Granite
"Volcano" detail 1998 Granite
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Japan: 1997-1999
Iwate International Stone Sculpture Symposium, Japan 1998
“Volcano and Flower bud ”
Some weeks before going to Japan I had made some drawings and small models of stylised flower buds with the working title “patience” and I took these ideas with me as possible themes for work. But during the first week the single, most memorable feature of the site was ”Iwate-san”, the volcano, which dominates the skyline of the region. The fact that Mount Iwate was cordoned off due to fears of imminent eruption further inspired me to try to carve my impression of the volcano, in black granite.
This was resolved into the recognisable outline of the top of the mountain, a familiar landmark to all sighted people of Iwate Prefecture, but a shape, which could simply disappear or change in the event of an eruption on a large enough scale.
Whilst carving the granite “mini-mountain” I began to think about my “flower bud” idea in a similar way. One could interpret the growing shoot of a plant as a kind of eruption, a bursting-out of the energy of new growth from an older stock and so the tiny bud could bear comparison with the mighty volcano.
It was in this way that I resolved to carve both a flower bud and a volcano, both about the same size in white and black granite respectively. They would represent two different outcomes of the irrepressible energy with which the earth continually renews itself.
On return to Scotland I continued with a botanical theme, modeling a three-dimensional interpretation of the “Paisley” pattern motif, so-named after a town to the south of Glasgow, but derived from the middle-east via the textile industry of northern India.
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"Paisley Date Palm" 1999 Ceramic 
