PART I

Yesterday it all became much clearer to me. I found out who ‘Roz’ is (You have been to my house and I to yours). Suddenly being able to put a face, a personality to the comments made sense to me. Why couldn’t Roz direct her comments to me directly as two people who have worked on the Forest Hill Society? I realised what I find wrong with the ‘anonymous’ postings or at least what was anonymous to me. Baggydave may know who seeforemiles is and they may know who Roz is for all I know .For the uninitiated into this club it left me with a bigger question. Am I really supposed to take seriously all of the comments that are made when I don’t know the background or the expertise or possibly the hidden agenda of that person? In our politically correct world perhaps we are supposed to give everyone’s comments the same credence. I’m sorry to say that I don’t.
We would not entertain this in our daily lives where we would expect our solicitor, plumber, builder to be an expert in the field in which we seek their speciality. Similarly it is like that with opinion. We have all heard ‘Of course he or she would say that because….’

I have spent fourty two years of my life so far making sculpture on a daily basis and since the age of twenty one there has never been a time in my life when I have not been restoring/enhancing or developing a building alongside my sculpture. I have restored listed Georgian buildings, Victorian buildings, built modern studios and restored warehouses. I have spent twenty years building a house in Portugal where every detail has been carefully sourced and painstakingly considered. My house in Portugal has been the subject of many articles.

My properties in Havelock Walk have always been used by Lewisham Council as examples of what is good about Lewisham. My house at no.6 was used for their calendar.

I list some of these things not so much to blow my own trumpet but to start to expand the point that I for one either consciously or unconsciously consider someone’s opinion within a context.
For me making art and buildings is a language. It is a highly developed language. I do not expect people to understand my sculpture without making a huge effort. Like any language if you don’t understand or make an effort you won’t get it. Any subject which tries to push boundaries will be difficult to understand and the people who push the boundaries have no obligation to make it easy for anyone. When this happens you get the mediocre ‘Art by committee’ that we have outside Sainsbury’s, but at least it has butterflies (sorry Roz)
Sometimes people have come in to my studio and said ‘You mean you sell that rubbish’ I don’t take comments like this personally because it usually comes from people who are threatened by something. Something new to them that they don’t understand.

I have no idea what Roz has done in her life to make her an expert on architecture or art, or any of the other critics for that matter. I am sure if I was to tell her that Sir Terry Farrell and Lord Foster support my design she would retort that their work “needs a thorough rethink”.
The saying ‘I don’t know much about art but I know what I like’ would be a much more honest response.

For me a swimming pool isn’t just a place to swim, the design and context is important. I was one of the people who fought to retain the pool where it is and to retain the façade.

The Sainsbury’s supermarket which I think Michael has pointed out as good design. This was the third design which I and others fought to improve on. Sainsbury’s were prepared to give us the absolute minimum.