Reflections on conversation with Phil Shaw, Thursday, 18 February 2016

After Phil's interesting lecture, outlining his own practice and how he moved from his training at Huddersfield to become an international artist in his own right, I was lucky enough to spend a little time with Phil, discussing my own work.

The current state of work I was able to show him, was the realisation of a small maquette of the fragment of the garden gnome, which had been enlarged to create a scale some 70 or 80 times as large as the original fragment. I explained the importance of the original dialogue I had, with respect to "things left behind" and the notion that these were not necessarily found objects, in fact the enquiry is about lost objects, and the notion of loss and how it affects individuals in particular.

My current studio space and current state of practice

I am not sure if my explanation of my position was perhaps a little too didactic, as the complexity of the works, especially the whole of the body of works, is not necessarily rooted in metaphor, -something that I think Phil may have misunderstood. It is clear from Phil's own works that he does use metaphor significantly, and he pointed out that only tends to have one or two metaphors within the work at most.

Conclusions;

• What I'm trying to create with my own work is on many more levels, in order for the viewer to find their own meaning, and it is not for me to create it just through metaphors. - Perhaps the ideas of semiology and contemporary philosophy may not have been as matured whilst Phil was looking for thematic inspiration for his work, as they are today; I therefore need to treat any critique positively where I can, but also with caution, and develop my own conclusions within my own oeuvre.
• Nevertheless, the conversation I found extremely encouraging, and Phil was kind enough to provide some reference sources for me, in the form of "the Wordsworth library" and the book "Fowlers English usage"; both of these I need to research for my own general understanding and engagement.