If you see this sculpture, you are not drawn towards it instantly. The wronged posture, a mix of sadness, anger and being side-lined. It seems to me to be the expression of the populist voter today. When he sees this image, it makes him furious, and he thinks artists are guzzlers for grants. While it is a good portrait, shows exactly what it is. Trapped in grief and therefore closed from inspiration. Look at it and feel what your reaction is.

Hidden in tormented ‘mud’ there is a very clear and tidy character. You are trapped in the poetry of life but not to be worried about. This image hit me with a shock. Having just started a working method where I did not allow myself to shape the clay with my fingers; I did not know where or how an image would appear. Suddenly consciousness rises from matter.