steve

Graduated from a silversmithing and jewellery degree in 2000, and began working for (alternative / gothic) jewellery company The Alchemy Carta in Leicester the same year. Where 7 years later I still reside as a model maker and sculptor. Creating master models for all in house ranges (Alchemy Gothic / 1977, Poker (band merch) and Alchemy Pewter) in this time for a worldwide market as well as various commissions and merchandise (pin badges, pendants, keyrings etc) for clients as varied as The Rolling Stones, the BBC, Metallica, Honda, Barclays Bank and Dolly Parton…Outside of this I have continued to produce a number of jewellery items (rings, pendants) in silver and precious / semi precious stones, as well as a collection of 2D work in various media.My own work grew out of a love of Byzantine and Symbolist art. It uses a figurative style as the main focal point. The figures themselves take Graham Sutherland’s “Crucifixion” as a starting point, alongside the elongated use of limbs in the sculptor Giacometti’s work. The emaciation of the victims of second world war death camps mixed with a heady dose of early Renaissance Christian art and ideas.Intellectually, I am informed by the contradictions in religious thought, Gnosticism, some of the works of Nietzsche as well as the idea of beauty in darkness and darkness in beauty as preached by David Lynch. The manifestos of Dadaism and the punk movement inspire, crossed with the opulence of the catholics and the lushness of the pre-Raphaelites.