Statement.

Initially Linda worked in wood, fibre glass, metals, ceramics, stone, plaster, and found objects, exploring all these materials and methods of making with a deep fascination for process.  Many of these early works were forms influenced by the ‘laws of chance’, her local natural environment, or the human form.  She was influenced at this time by the work of Jean Arp and David Smith.

Since then she has developed two lines of work.  The first line of work is created in response to the history, architecture and landscape of a particular location, event, or theme, using images, forms, and ideas, which we hold in common understanding but which have been assembled together and/or enlarged  in a very personal way.

For example ‘Chain Gang’ which was created for a YSG exhibition at Harlow Carr, derived from what she felt was a common childhood memory of laying on the grass and twining flowers together into a daisy chain.  This idea mixed with the sense of a ‘chain gang’ which reflected how some people perceive these little flowers negatively in their immaculate lawns, prompted her to use metal chain and hang on to it the flowers which were made from water based fibreglass, polystyrene, lollipop sticks, and paint.  The flowers, like many of her sculptural ‘objects’, are hugely enlarged from life, and the chain hung from tree to tree.  A new and unexpected dimension to this work was created when it became part of the venue’s light show.

The piece called ‘Puppet’ (Home page image) was created for an exhibition commemorating the role Scarborough had during the First World War when the town was bombarded from the sea.  Here there is the idea of how little control people have over themselves and their own lives in times of war and how the population is used by the enemy to try to create an atmosphere of fear and submission.  The child is in separate, broken, pieces and held together by wire.  He/she is tagged with a brown Identification label on one foot and the head is torn open with the names of the people who died in the bombardment pasted inside the head.  Personal reflections of the devastating impact of war have combined together to create this new and tactile three dimensional form.

Her second line of work references the form, mass, structure and sense of balance to be found within the local rocky landscapes of Yorkshire, and the penetrating and intertwining nature of different organic materials. These works  are often ceramic, or carved high density polystyrene coated with a water based resin.

This work is created by freely assembling separate, manipulated forms until they represent a ‘whole’ object which resonates with her inner psychological store of memories and images.  The finished piece may reflect a human form or idea, which may then be carved into or drawn on with spirals, lines, and cup and ring markings which are partly remembered images from prehistoric stone markings.  The relationship between landscape and the human form is one which fascinates the artist as she feels we instinctively interact, change, or absorb our physical and imaginative selves within our surrounding environment. The finished pieces are then given the artists chosen title which has evolved as the work on the piece progresses.

Both lines of work have intertwined and overlapped for many years and Linda’s work is still growing and changing, her use of materials still expanding, and she is still discovering different ways in which to express her aesthetic ideas and experiences in our challenging and changing world.