2024 was a year of healing and recalibration on a personal level. The previous 2 years were a time of emotional difficulty with the loss of my parents, the time leading up to it, and a realization of my own emotional vulnerability. Prior to this I didn’t really grasp how difficult life can get at times as most of life’s difficulties and upsets I managed with relative ease.

The impact of this has been massive although the upside of going through difficult times is that I feel more rounded and empathetic with others having hard times and felt a heightened sense of the warmth and importance of family, friends and celebrations of good things happening.

Art-wise I feel I have made some great progress, gaining more skills in my chosen medium and creating works that match my vision. I began to make some bigger, more elaborate pieces as I worked out how to construct them. The modelling has become more refined as I’ve gained more skill with the clays. There are no short-cuts with gaining skill except to make, make more and yet more. I always say, ‘Make the ugly works, and lots of them!’, the ugly works that don’t quite match your vision are the only way into the great works.

After making a lot of works with elaborate structures on their backs I began to investigate animals pulling carriages. This led on to larger pieces and the addition of lots of smaller characters driving the carriages and interacting. I had so much fun arranging these small humanish animals that I decided to leave these unfixed so that they can be rearranged in different configurations.

Well one thing always leads to another! To have these rearrangeable I had to make the figures similar enough to either sit or stand in various places, this led on to making little ‘handholds’ from wire so they wouldn’t annoyingly fall off at the slightest breath of wind. I did some experimenting with magnets, shelved for now but something I may come back to. The scale was important also, they had to be small enough to make the primary ‘steed’ pulling the cart look big. I discovered the frustration of making small things with fingers that are too big!

I made some artworks with elaborate structures on their backs.

I began making carriages with movable characters.

When I’m working out stuff like this and chasing an idea to make it real, this is the happy place I like to be! Solving technical problems to bring an artwork to life, chasing an idea and look that I can’t put into words, it’s something that’s not even clear in my mind’s eye, like catching a dream.

I also began creating works over toy cars. I like the idea of a movable piece, and they came out with a kind of ‘Mad Max’ feel to them.

I enjoyed the ‘Mad Max’ feel to these ones.

In between bigger pieces I made a lot of smaller ‘floofs’, dogs, cats and had a lot of fun with making short humorous videos. I feel I’ve learnt a lot about photography and video, with still much more to learn.

I took part in two art shows in Christchurch and Wellington, which I thoroughly enjoyed. So great to mix with art lovers and buyers, and I made some new arty friends! I’m intending on taking part in another couple this year also.

I got hacked and lost all my social media accounts which was extremely frustrating. I have since got my Instagram account back which is good. The above image was sent around to all my contacts as an advertisement for bitcoin, not a great look for an artist trying to create a solid online presence. On the positive, it got me out of my comfort zone and led me to U Tube and experimenting with video.

So all in all, it was a very busy year with a lot happening in a lot of different areas. My website has been somewhat neglected, so I intend to spend a bit of time over the next few months giving it some love, and I need to get updating more regularly. We’ve already rolled into 2025 so I better get moving!