I started making sculptures out of tin and specifically automata out of tin and wire while I was working at a textile mill in Summerset in the early 1980's. Straight after leaving Camberwell college of art I received a grant to develop my weaving techniques on to power looms at Foxes a men's suiting textile mill. It was fascinating place dating back to the 1700's.It was probably the looms and machines that inspired the automata. I finished working on the looms after a couple of years but it was the sculpture I continued with. I had been dividing my time between summerset and London where I was living and working in a studio in squatted buildings. The life of rebuilding these spaces and scavenging in the streets greatly influenced my sculpture. I found the materials I needed to create in the streets. Primarily I was using food and car oil tins which were abundant then. I developed simple automated works. The gathered free materials enabled me a lot of freedom for creativity and experimentation and as ,with not much money I could make work very cheaply. These automata later turned into static pieces. The inspiration for these was all around me and I was constantly collecting ideas in note books. My antenna was out looking for interesting scenarios of people, animals and their moods and gestures.
Using narrative and a capturing a moment with in a story I created many small works and large life size figures out of catering size tin cans. I now continue to use tin but tend to also incorporate many other materials and found objects. Along the way the figures I was making changed in to more cartoon like characters. shifting my 'people like people' into these 'beings' enabled me to further explore the characteristics and the essence of people. I am currently developing work of ceramic, tin, wood, paintings and found objects that has no figures but the inkling of people passing.
