Artist Goes Under

 At a point in my life when a day devoted to discovering artists and musicians on the internet is a rare and cherished occasion, I am happy to find small gems worthy of sharing with you. I stumbled upon Jason deCaires Taylor's sculptures on an interesting blog called The Jealous Curator. The great thing about blogs is that you can browse previously weeded through material that is handed to you, well formatted, on a click-able silver platter.

What I find interesting about Jason's work is the concrete sculptures themselves, life-like emotional representations of the human form and the obvious part of dropping these sculptures at the bottom of the ocean. This is where nature takes over; the sea creatures become the artists and 

magic happens. 

 I view the work, I read the history, and I figure out how it relates to me. How will it inspire me? In this case, it's the artist biography. An excerpt:

"Much of his childhood was spent on the coral reefs of Malaysia where he developed a profound love of the sea and a fascination with the natural world. This would later lead him to spend several years working as a scuba diving instructor in various parts of the globe, developing a strong interest in conservation, underwater naturalism and photography. His bond with the sea remains a constant throughout Taylor's life though other key influences are found far from the oceans. During his teenage years, work as a graffiti artist fired his interest in the relationship between art and the environment, fostering an ambition to produce art in public spaces and directing the focus of his formal art training. He graduated in 1998 from the London Institute of Arts, with a B.A. Honours in Sculpture and Ceramics. Later, experience in Canterbury Cathedral taught him traditional stone carving techniques whilst five years working in set design and concert installations exposed him to cranes, lifting, logistics and completing projects on a grand scale."

Ideas worth anything do not come from thin air. Most of the time great things come from passion and experience. A job as a scuba diving instructor doesn't commonly lead to large scale, sculptural artistry. I am invigorated as I look forward to the future. What part of my background will spring board into my prolific future? I suspect it's the part of my background that is the least likely influence. It won't be my design accreditation or degrees, it'll be the time I spent being dragged from antique shop to antique shop or the time I spent as a child around 18-wheelers and cement mixers. 

You never know.