About the work
'Working from sketches,
I aim to create toy like worlds that invite the viewer in to explore.'
The technique used to create the work is a move away from more
traditional methods and has been described as 3D card sculpture.
The subject of the work varies but all have a common thread:
nature, integrity, truth.
Simon O`Rourke.
After finishing my A`levels I was advised not to pursue a career
as an artist.
I wasn't bloody minded enough to ignore this advise and so headed
off to Brighton to study biology.
After three months I knew I wouldn't finish the course and decided
to leave.
Returning to Yorkshire I started work for a stone mason which
suited me well.
I carried on drawing regularly.
Around christmas time I was laid off and depressed. My mother
and step dad had started work in the Pub industry and offered
me a job at their pub in Grovesner street W1 London.
Arriving in the centre of London at christmas time was exciting
and a huge contrast to working in rural Yorkshire. My dog charlie
came with me and I walked him twice a day through Grovesner square
and into Hyde park.
After four years working the pubs in central London my mother
wanted to move out and they chose a pub in Haywards Heath, West
Sussex. 15 minutes from Brighton by train, a place I new and liked
seemed a good move so I moved down and worked in the pub for a
while.
Bored with pub life I decided to enrolled on a graphic design
course at Chelsea & Kensington College. Just around the corner
from Ladbrooke Grove, the place is a real cultural pot of Moroccan,
Irish, Asian and African.
During this course I got a job working for a design company in
Islington which was great. I met some really interesting people
and learnt a lot about the industry, enough to know I didn't want
to spend the rest of my career setting out type and developing
other peoples ideas.
During this time I had been visiting art exhibitions around London
and came across the work of the Chapman brothers, Jake and Dinos.
The work had a big influence on me.
Their models have a real toy like quality which takes me back
to my childhood.
At the age of twenty seven I decided to concentrate on making
art.
This meant I would have to get a part time job and work hard.
A friend offered me work in his design agency in Bradford, West
Yorkshire.
Moving out of London didn't seen a problem now that I knew want
I wanted to do.
I am presently living in a shared house of creative and inspiring
people in Saltaire. Communal dinners, music, poetry and arguments,
fantastic!
Some of these characters can be seen on the web site www.saltaireart.com
My first exhibition was at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds
Feb 06. The response from the public was very encouraging.
|
