Mike Pratt

Mike spoke about how he had done a lot of expressive paintings throughout university, but he never really felt like they where finished, feeling more like an activity to him then work. After university he became tired of painting so he tried to create 3-D forms of his paintings, experimenting with new materials such as wicker. Mike explained how the sculpture started of as three guitar bodies and he ended up layering and layering this sculpture, using many materials such as resin, creating a dripping effect. Mike didn't speak much more about this sculpture, but I actually really liked the sculpture,due to the freeness of the piece as Mike was just experimenting with this and having fun which i think can be sensed in the sculpture. 

Carrying on with the idea of more sculptural work Mike explained how he was inspired by Barbara Hepworth and tried to create a larger sculpture using foam, but ended up getting frustrated with this work and kind of gave up. Although this sculpture wasn't great it did result in Mike experimenting more freely again as he began working for another artist in Amsterdam which left him with a lot of spare time to have fun with his practice. Like creating a sculpture out of old socks he had and welding a frame for this, which Pratt explained to be almost like a 3-D sketch. He also began making sculptures from funny things he had seen such as his encounter with a motor cyclist wearing a leather jacket and a single dreadlock flying in the wind. From this he made a sculpture of a torsos dressed like bikers that vibrate so their hair would flicker every now and then as seen in the two images above. 


After this Mike spoke about how he went back to paintings, but incorporated 3-D elements into his canvas' by having capes hung behind them and creating holes in the painting to reveal the material behind. 

Out of all of Mike's work I really liked his first sculpture he spoke about with the guitars due to the playfulness of it, but i didn't find any of his work inspiring or useful with my own ideas or practice.