I suppose you could call it “sculpture”.

For a blog that is supposed to concentrate on the life and activity of an artist this one has been noticeably silent about art of late. There is a good reason for that. I have been constructing a new set of composting bins for the garden.

We take recycling fairly seriously, and along with weeds and other garden waste we put vegetable matter left over from the kitchen into a bin so that it can be rotted down and recycled as soil. This process normally takes three years, so we need an array of three bins. My wife, who loves ordering rituals, delights in turning the material over every year, and distributing the fresh compost onto the garden, or using it to fill pots for flowers or vegetables.

I built the previous facility quite some time ago …. perhaps as long as fifteen years, but I’m not sure. Because the bins are made of wood of course eventually they too rot and need to be replaced. So this year I cleared away the old bins and have just finished making the new ones. Although I had no “artistic” intentions the process turned out to bear significant resemblances to making a piece of art. The principal one being that the finished object has ended up significantly different from the originating idea. My neat, initial drawing in orthographic projection assumed that each bin would be rectangular, but there are few right angles in the final version. The bins are located under two substantial trees and next to some large shrubs, so that any attempt to drive the main posts into the ground normally means an encounter with a large root. Compromise, shall we say, is necessary, and as the roots won’t move then I have to. My original design was planned in imperial measurements, but I suppose that I should have anticipated that the timber merchant would work with metric ones. *

I would say, if pressed, that there is a definitely Expressionist feel about the whole venture. Looked at from a certain angle one might event detect echoes of Vorticism. I has that kind of energy about it. Since a certain amount of the material is recycled I would even go so far as to claim a spiritual affinity with Arte Povera. You will have guessed by now that I am actually quite proud of it. It would not surprise me altogether if, when we come to sell the house, a buyer might be persuaded to buy the place largely because it bestowed the opportunity to own this very original piece.

*So much for British withdrawal from the EU!