Nature, For Me Is Raw And Dangerous

I Want To Get Under The Surface. When I Work With A Leaf, Rock, Stick, It Is Not Just That Material In Itself, It Is An Opening Into The Processes Of Life Within And Around It. When I Leave It, These Processes Continue.

At Its Most Successful, My 'touch' Looks Into The Heart Of Nature; Most Days I Don't Even Get Close. These Things Are All Part Of A Transient Process That I Cannot Understand Unless My Touch Is Also Transient - Only In This Way Can The Cycle Remain Unbroken And The Process Be Complete.

I Have To Understand The Nature Of Change. And I Cannot Just Work With Stone Or The More Permanent Materials. I Need To Work With Leaves And Ice And Snow And Mud And Clay And Water And The Rising Tide And The Wind And All These.

In Contact With Materials, I Can See So Much More With My Hands Than I Can Just With My Eyes. I'm A Participant, Not A Spectator. I See Myself Both As An Object And A Material, And The Human Presence Is Really Important To The Landscapes In Which I Work.

When It Does Get Below Freezing And There Is - It's Cold Enough For Ice To Form, Then That Changes The Whole Landscape, And It Makes The Landscape A Different Landscape To The One That I Worked With Previously. And I Want To Understand That. But The Big Tension Of The Ice Works Is That They're Often Made When It's Cold Enough To Freeze One Piece Of Ice To Another.