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60 Australian Wood Review
PROFILEA lot of people think it’s an easy
lifestyle but if you’re going down
that path you’ve asked for a much
tougher life than showing up nine
to five.Do you need a disciplined approach to
make things work on a professional level?Time strategies can help.
I never work on the same element
for longer than 50 minutes without
stepping back and then away for
10 minutes. And if I am up against
the wall I will actually set time
limits, and what I’ve found is that it
will usually take a third to half the
amount of time to do something
than you think. But when you use
that timing structure you do not
answer the phone, you do not reply
to texts, you don’t go and make a
cup of coffee (do that before). You
need to be one-minded, anything
less is not respecting yourself and
your processes.What annoys you when you’re
working on a piece?Disturbances. To get back into the
zone is very difficult because when
you’ve entered into it, to be pulled out
of it is disastrous. That’s why I don’t
open my studio to the public any more.What’s the most important thing to you
when working on a sculpture?A sense of quiet, that sense of
enough space to let the piece come
into existence.Do you market yourself, or has the
business just built up?A bit of this and that, but I do subscribe
to the theory that you do have to have
your followers, not just financially,
but they’re in the conversation with
you. There is a sense that I’m making
for someone, but I’m not making for
everyone. If you get trapped in the idea
that you want everyone to like your
work or you want to satisfy the masses,
well that’s production, and that’s not
what I do. I make for a specific group –
I don’t know who they are but they
seem to appear.Clockwise from above:
Flock of Whales, Huon
pine, white beech, painted
Hape Kiddle with Holding
Water, Huon pine
Song For Tao, a mobius
form in Huon pine
Coolamon bowl form
carved from salvaged
Tasmanian rainforest burl