PeteStudioPix

My sculpture is an ongoing investigation into ideas and responses to nature, the environment, landscape and about the relationship of nature to the human spirit and culture; ideas about the fragility of nature and the spirit of the land, and how we should respect and venerate what we have. In making my work, I use symbols that I have invented, combined with those derived from existing recognisable symbols that exist in many cultures throughout the world. I use all these images to emphasise ideas and emotions I feel about the fragility and preciousness of nature and the Australian environment.

Over the last years, I have been working on sculpture I call Totems, Altars, Shrines and Tabernacles. This is part of an ongoing personal investigation and an attempt to express my thoughts and emotional responses through my art - the effect that grandeur, colour, light, texture, and forms within the landscape, have on the well-being of the inner human spirit. In an endeavour to achieve some understanding about my thoughts, I often take a natural stone, or stones - of a particular colour or form -from the landscape. I then place it on, or in, my symbolic totem, shrine, altar or tabernacle structure, in such a position to suggest to the viewer that a particular stone or rock has significance or relevance. In doing so, I am expressing my thoughts about the spirit of the land.

Artist's Statement My sculpture is an ongoing investigation into ideas and responses to nature, the environment, landscape and about the relationship of nature to the human spirit and culture; ideas about the fragility of nature and the spirit of the land, and how we should respect and venerate what we have. In making my work, I use symbols that I have invented, combined with those derived from existing recognisable symbols that exist in many cultures throughout the world. I use all these images to emphasise ideas and emotions I feel about the fragility and preciousness of nature and the Australian environment. Over the last years, I have been working on sculpture I call Totems, Altars, Shrines and Tabernacles. This is part of an ongoing personal investigation and an attempt to express my thoughts and emotional responses through my art - the effect that grandeur, colour, light, texture, and forms within the landscape, have on the well-being of the inner human spirit. In an endeavour to achieve some understanding about my thoughts, I often take a natural stone, or stones - of a particular colour or form -from the landscape. I then place it on, or in, my symbolic totem, shrine, altar or tabernacle structure, in such a position to suggest to the viewer that a particular stone or rock has significance or relevance. In doing so, I am expressing my thoughts about the spirit of the land.