Art is a method of representing our
impression of the world that exists
outside ourselves, a sense impression
which individually we consider to be
reality. But how does that relate to
people, and to what we think of them,
and to how we describe them.
But how can I go beyond that and represent the impression of the
relationship rather than a mere copy of the physical geometry. The
inner identity of the person, their philosophy and outlook on life,
their self-awareness, and the projection of that spiritual consciousness,
their psyche. This is what I remember and relate to. This is what
I want to create for you to recognise.
In Temps Perdue the imagined/remembered and the reality are beautifully
juxtaposed....
A puppet show in which in order to identify the puppets with
the people whom one had known in the past, it was necessary to
read what was written on several planes at once, planes that lay
behind the visible aspect of the puppets and gave them depth and
forced one, as one looked at these aged marionettes, to make a
strenuous effort; one was obliged to study them at the same time
with ones eyes and with one's memory. These were puppets bathed
in the immaterial colours of the years, puppets which exteriorised
Time, Time which by Habit is made invisible and to become visible
seeks bodies...."
We are really only in contact with a world which our mind has
interpreted and re-created. J. Craham Beaumont.
Our social interactions are organised around such sense impressions,
dictating the way we relate to, and understand each other. Portraiture
although limited to a very small fragment of these sense impressions
is the most vital element in all our relationships, it is in effect
an evolving study of these relationships.
If time is a car propelling us into the future, memory is the driving
mirror.
The way we relate to another person is determined by our assessment
of that person combined with our image of ourselves. There can be
no simple viewpoint, a relationship is a dynamic state and exists
only in two basic forms, the real time interactive, and the imaginary
or remembered.
As change is the measure of time, so memory is the measure of change
and we continually flip from the present to the remembered, (from
the actual to the imagined) like a Time lord. This is a continual
process in all our encounters and is the basis for maintaining our
position and standing in all our personal relationships in the home,
at work, and in society. 
Memory is the mirror of time.
When we remake an aquaintance
we work from a remembered state, when we are engaged in making contact
we work towards an imagined state. It is these two states that set
conditions which differentiate our behaviour from the way we relate
to the check out girl or the postman to that of our friends or relatives.
 It is from the remembered
state that I start a portrait sculpture.
Whereas the visual image is a one-view sense-impression in time,
the memory-image is a complex collage which has used all the resources
of our mind and memory to compile a set of emotions, access several
conditions and channels of interaction, assess our 'performance'
strategy, and combine them into an almost tangible relationship
form. 
A work of art is the only means of discovering lost time.
PROUST.
It is only in recollection that we can assemble all this information
because at the time we are involved in it, we are part of the whole
process, and to restart the process we must reposition ourselves
in the relationship we knew. There may be a correlation in returning
to a street or area we once knew, we can start from any one point,
or perhaps from several points none of which are obvious to the
casual on-looker, so too in relationships. My approach to portraiture
offers a way to study this.
Perception is the selection of the most appropriate stored hypothesis
according to current sensory data. Gregory.
Adapted from "Notes to an Exhibition of Sculpture"
held in Milton Keynes Village, June 17-25 1989
     
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