My Inspiration.
For as long as I can remember, I have felt a profound connection to nature, particularly to trees. Their magnificent, towering strength captivates me, with every twist and turn of revealing a unique story of survival and adaptation. To me, there are few things more magical or ancient than a tree whispering secrets from a time long forgotten.
As a child, the woods were my sanctuary. I would spend hours tracing the gnarly textures of tree trunks, envisioning them as faerie homes or doorways to another realm. Fuelled by the visionary worlds of fantasy artists like Brian Froud and Peter Pracownik, and the epic mythologies of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, my imagination thrived. I learned to look past the surface to see gnarled roots, hollow trunks, and patches of fungi as potential gateways to a hidden, wondrous world waiting just out of sight.
That childhood sense of wonder has never left me. When I find a tree that resonates with me, time stands still. Through my passion for Celtic folklore, I discovered the magic of the "Flying Rowan." In nature, birds digest rowan berries and deposit the seeds into rocky crevices or high in the branches of older trees. When they sprout, their roots hover above the earth. In Celtic mythology, the Rowan is a sacred symbol of courage, wisdom, and protection. These hovering "Flying Rowans," thriving in the most unlikely of places, are revered as magical portals—and they serve as the ultimate inspiration for my sculpting.
I hope that my designs enable you to get lost in the detail, where your imagination can come alive, and you have a sense of being transported to the edge of the ‘otherworld’.
“Voices in the forest tell of dark and twisted enchantments- as dark and twisted as the roots and grasping branches of the trees themselves. Even the most gnarled tree is eloquent in the telling of its own tale” - Brian Froud
“At the edge of our world, at the edge of the otherworld, the beautiful and mysterious faeries stand, watching and waiting to greet us, inviting us to journey with them as our guides while we walk the infinite paths of the faerie” - Brian Froud.
“He told them tales of bees and flowers, the ways of trees, and the strange creatures of the forest, about evil things and the good things, things friendly and things unfriendly, cruel things and kind things, and secrets hidden under brambles”- J.R.R. Tolkien.
“I am at home among the trees”- J.R.R. Tolkien.