Exploring precious metals natural qualities, and how it reacts to different techniques, has been the source for many of Stuart’s ideas. Letting the material have a life of it’s own, shapes and ideas can be suggested through the making process, and followed through to their natural conclusion.
Contrast is used to create a visual palette, rough/smooth, texture/polished, black/white, the metal becomes a painterly/sculptural material. Hammer techniques prepare the section used, and shape the object, in which the surface retains all marks of the creative act. A simple hand raised bowl can become a document of it’s own making, not just a silhouette, but a vessel containing the energy used to create it.
