What work are you showing in your Goldmark exhibition, Look, That You May Hear Me?
I’m showing 50-odd pieces that I’ve made in the last three years – there’s a lot to see, including pieces that I’ve painted as well as plenty that rely on the wood’s colouring alone.
I’ve been making since 1967, when I studied with the carver Harry Spring. Today, I still do what he taught me all those decades ago.
How do you find the quotations you use?
I choose what jumps off the page at me – it could be anything, but it must be short, as carving takes a long time. Looking around my room, there’s a piece quoting The Battle of Maldon [a 10th-century poem written in Old English], a Picasso quote: ‘Art is a lie that tells the truth’, and one quoting from the Song of Songs.
I find my quotes everywhere, from the Bible to Groucho Marx. I consider myself an artist, and my subject is language.