Tenfold • Giles Penny
From the beginning I was compelled to express myself creatively, and at the age of fifteen went to the Heatherly School of Art where I had the opportunity to explore different disciplines. The most inspiring I found was drawing, and I still do. The ability to create an image with just a few pencil lines is a magical feeling. All the techniques that I experienced are still lodged in my head like a tool bank from which I can draw depending on the influences and information that surrounds the artwork I am involved in making. Also, in my head is an image bank built up over the years of visual association of symbols, pictures, and words that are constantly in use during the creative process.
I then attended Bournemouth College of Art and completed a foundation course where I was able to explore further connections between drawing and painting. It was only later at Newport Art College that I started to investigate the realms of three dimensions and began to translate ideas from 2D into 3D and back again. I still find working in relief an exciting challenge because it seems to unite both dimensions at one time.
Travelling to Italy whilst a student I noticed the doors of the Vatican have bronze relief panels made by Manzu. The edges of these panels were left with flashing from the casting process; this brutalness coupled with the sensitivity of Manzus forms was impressive by its simplicity and strength. Being an artist is a journey of constant enquiry in many forms on many levels. Truth to materials is a concept I’ve only recently begun to understand. I think a sculpture is born from the bonding of internal and external experiences and the conclusion of a piece marks the point at which it exists by itself.
I am therefore acting as a link in a process of creation.
