New Work in Marble – continued
The sculptures were created in one long, intense period of work. I like to carve in this way, uncovering the ideas quickly as they arise. One piece naturally becomes an extension or a deviation from the one before and I get slightly intoxicated in my eagerness to uncover the next idea. Seb, my assistant, would consider this a ludicrous understatement: in my enthusiasm I found myself starting up to five sculptures before finishing the first.

During this period of work we were alternately roasted by the sun and soaked by the rain; we spent half our days hauling carvings in and out of the workshop. When the rain is like a fine mist the dust from the marble sticks to everything – especially my hair, where it clings and sets like a 17th century wig.