Vessels on shelves, these are slip-cast from moulds, the models for these are found objects wound round by fabric to create the irregular texture. They are a challenge to extract from the moulds as it’s too easy to create undercuts. Those on shelves sit well with drinking straws in them which echo the angles of the poles in the image behind.

I’ve turned to painting in the last part of this year as a means to express something other than I felt I could by ceramics only. The experience has found me constructing a large and solid frame in woodwork and then stretching canvas over it. The 8 foot by 6 foot stretcher took a lot of stapling, since then I’ve been faced with covering this huge canvas. I’m using oils and because of the subject matter I am projecting separate images onto it, the light giving me some guidance. The background is more of an adventure in patchwork than an observation, I enjoy this.

The seven ladies depicted are all pole-vaulters pictured at the World Indoor Athletics Championships, so right at the top of their game. I’ve chosen them because they see the world from every conceivable angle, even if fleetingly and because they clear the bar even at that highest height. A bar originally set by men. Whilst I cannot pole-vault myself I can appreciate all those angles from swimming, diving (from the mirror) and using other tools such as photographic tripods.

We live in a world where images are so easy to find at light speed, I took this opportunity to attempt to make one slowly. I’m displaying my vessels on poles that to an extent echo the angles of the vaulting poles.

The juxtaposition between the 2D images of people and the 3D pots up-ended or suspended flying through the air represents something of where I sometimes feel I am in time and space.