If as Dali/Breton said, ‘found objects have been waiting in the unconscious’ I might extend this to all art. I found this piece of what I think is pine, a wild and small sea pine, in Provence by the coast amongst vineyards and forest maybe 5 years ago. Its been sitting, neglected, amongst other found objects in my basement (!) since then.

At art school we would go to the British Museum and draw sculpture. I wasnt very good at life drawing but I was ok at constructing drawings of sculpture. Less pressure, more time.There are some draped figures of Nike there and the marble drapery is cut so deep I could put my entire forearm amongst the folds. This scrap of wood reminded me of the posture of the goddess of Victory, one arm raised, back curved, striding forward.

I started with a block of red sandstone as the proportions worked. I intended to act without intention. to simply act. as i began i thought of a ploughed field. I wanted to cut and smash. Id been thinking about why i worked with stone and i think one of the causes is that it involves destruction. where other mediums, painting, clay, involve smearing liquid matter stone requires destruction, removal of dry matter and this for some reason appeals to me. revealing through removal like an archaeology of the self. You get rid of stuff and whats left is Essential. I used a 5″grinder to cut the first furrows at varying depths and did so without drawn lines. I planned to then cut through them at 90 degrees but found myself smashing the ridges off with a lump hammer and cutting another sequence of furrows converging on one point i have no idea why. I smashed some of these off, kept others and continued until it was as seen. Then i had the idea of scribing lines that echoed the furrows like Chinese whispers down into the depths. This was strangely exhausting and I struggled to control my concentration and the tungsten scribe with both hands, the pressure hurting my fingers, trying to flat line near the bottom, little blips of activity popping up like signs of electrical activity, signs of life and then the line disappears into the distant unseen.

Since I wrote this a month ago I have reinterpreted this piece to be not of Nike but, of course of Ariadne partnered as she is with the Minotaur and connected as she is, it seems by a thread to the blood red stone. This is exactly the way I had hoped this project would evolve as the Archetype (this time of The Labyrinth)  uses me as a conduit to express itself.