3000 things i notice.....

 ‘I walk the Gorge three or four times per week. Sometimes I walk alone, sometimes with people, mostly with my dog.  This work is about my experience of the place and through walking, the things I notice.  I notice book rock, tree fossil, dinosaur-head rock, slipper rock all forged by nature and geological time. I notice the sounds of the gorge, cheeping dipper, crashing river, air forced down by the wing of a heron.  I notice the eyes of the trees watching me as I walk on by. I walk on by again and again and I can’t stop myself.’

Looking back, I recognise 3000 Things I Notice as the beginning of a way of practising that continues to shape everything I make. It emerged from hundreds of walks through Staward Gorge over several years. At the time, I didn't fully understand why I kept returning. I only knew that each walk revealed something new: a rock formation, a bird call, the changing river, a familiar tree seen differently. The work taught me that places reveal themselves through return, and that staying with one place long enough can transform both the work and the artist.