Stephen Boyd | The Building Block

About

Recently I have been working with materials that I find scattered around my feet; in the house, in the work place. It's accord to me that this stuff can be joined/glued to each other to form something; structures, objects. By layering, from the floor upwards and adding as you go, one on top of the other, the form seems to find itself in the end. As in my paintings from the past, my own figure becomes a starting point and that hasn't changed. The forms may represent my own growing/form in a way. Much of this material base; wood, plastic, toys, playing cards is a mixture of traditional/family history. The plastic toys have come about by working interactively with my son, which is another angle in the development of this work that I hope to explore. Some of the discarded bits 'n' pieces have been removed from interior projects that I have worked on. For instance the playing cards are old and tattered from the days when my father used to use them. And so with that, along with my son's Lego pieces and coloured pencils it creates a dynamic. There is an emphasis here on the re-learning; going back, playing, from the start. I am interested in the 'development', 'learnt process' and 'technique' as ideas to further this process. And so dealing with the possibility of the 'not-knowing'. Although 'technique' is hard to avoid, and is something that plays in to the natural development of the artist, it is another angle in regards to the way I approach the work. I see myself looking through the eyes of my son at times, which gives me a new/different perspective regards 'development', and of course what I have 'learnt' up to this point.