Meet David J Mitchell - Sculptor
David is a sculptor and painter. Working in many different materials, David produces pieces in marble, bronze, terracotta, and plaster in order to achieve his artistic visions.
Working from his studio in Scotland, David undertakes bespoke commissions for clients as well as producing gallery work and public monuments.
David is a sculptor and painter. Working in many different materials, David produces pieces in marble, bronze, terracotta, and plaster in order to achieve his artistic visions.
Working from his studio in Scotland, David undertakes bespoke commissions for clients as well as producing gallery work and public monuments.
Category
ЁЯЧЮ
NewsTranscript
00:00My name is David Mitchell, I am a sculptor.
00:03When I was leaving school I actually didn't want to do art.
00:07I kind of ditched doing my highers and my GCSEs and actually decided I wanted to be a missionary
00:12and planned to do that for a number of years after leaving school.
00:17You know art was the furthest thing from my mind and then that sort of fell through.
00:22My dad was reading the newspaper and he saw an advert in the newspaper saying
00:26the art school was looking for students.
00:28I didn't have a portfolio so I whipped together a portfolio in about a week and it was accepted.
00:33That was Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen.
00:35I went in I think initially wanting to be a painter
00:39and because well I hadn't really done much sculpture.
00:42I'd done lots of painting but sculpture was not really in my wheelhouse.
00:45First year was sort of mainly painting a bit of sculpture
00:48and then after first year chose sculpture as my specialty.
00:53Around that time I started working with a sculptor in Glasgow called Sandy Stoddart.
00:58Who was a traditional sculptor who does sort of figurative classical statues.
01:06I spent a few summers working with him in his studio making statues, cleaning the floor.
01:12The sort of thing you do when you're employed by a sculptor and I hated it.
01:18It was all old and you know I thought it was you know just copying what had been before
01:26and it wasn't new you know it wasn't pushing the boundaries of what art was.
01:30And then in the art school they were talking about all these different techniques
01:34in sculpture and how anything can be sculpture.
01:39I remember one teacher saying that even a smell can be a sculpture if you wanted it to be.
01:45And I said you know a fart could be a sculpture.
01:49To which he laughed but I think something resonated within me
01:52that kind of made me think the whole kind of modernist kind of art that they were teaching
02:01was felt very shallow.
02:03I think probably spending the few years I spent working at Sandy's
02:07seeing the time and the skill and the hard work that went into all the work
02:12and all the statues kind of gave me a greater appreciation for the so-called forgotten craft.
02:21It wasn't something that you could fling together in you know half an hour
02:24which is what was happening at the art schools.
02:27It was something that you know took months and years to do.
02:29It involved you know lots of people, foundries and you know lorries and crane guys
02:37and foundation workers you know the whole lot.
02:40It was the serious kind of work that I was looking for.
02:44I think that's when it dawned on me that you know this is the sort of work I want to do.
02:47I learned the craft really by practice.
02:49At Sandy's you know I spent most of my time you know building armatures
02:52which is like the skeleton of a statue.
02:55Learning some technical stuff but the real craft of the work was learned by doing.
03:02By making mistakes, by making pieces of sculpture that blow up in the kiln
03:06which has happened a few times.
03:08You know spend months on a piece of work and then you know it's gone in a second.
03:12The hard work was spent here in the chaos and the mess
03:16and making mistakes, lots of mistakes and making lots of work that nobody will ever see.
03:23That's where really it was learned and looking at books,
03:27lots of studies of sculptors that I've gotten in the past.
03:32Looking at you know Michelangelo and Donatello and all these guys
03:38and sort of analysing what made their sculptures so good.
03:42What didn't make them good you know.
03:45What did Michelangelo do really well and what were his mistakes.
03:48Sort of ignoring the people who say you know this isn't art,
03:52this is just a hobby or a craft.
03:56You know you're a craftsperson, you know you're not an artist.
04:00Figure that you know if somebody wants to you know hang their pants on a washing line
04:04and call it a piece of great sculpture then you know so be it, that's up to them.
04:08But it's not for me.
04:09For me this traditional work is where I think the soul is most revealed.
04:18Do you feel that there's a real honesty in sculpture?
04:21That's a good question, yes and no.
04:26Why?
04:27No because your whole career's about lying.
04:31One of the richest guys in Scotland was in sitting for a portrait
04:33and he asked me to you know bring his chin in a wee bit, lift his double chin and
04:40I told him I couldn't do it.
04:41I said I can't lie.
04:43I know other people would lie but you know you need to reveal the truth of the person
04:50through the work because you know you're trying to capture the essence of the person,
04:56what makes them who they are and trying to convey that in a piece of sculpture
05:00which is made of plaster or marble or bronze which is a hard job to do.
05:06It's a lot to ask for you know a piece of material to convey the whole essence of a person.
05:12You have to lie about it, you have to add in clues about who the person is.
05:18You're taking not directly from their face but from their lives
05:22and trying to kind of add that in in a way which is honest.
05:27The first moment I kicked off was with a statue in Petercutter
05:32which is up just near Aberdeen, a statue of Rob Roy.
05:35That was sort of the first real big thing that gave me a kick
05:40saying you know this is you know maybe a valid career.
05:44This is something that you could do.
05:46The statue's terrible if you look at it now.
05:48I look at it and just see all the mistakes.
05:50I did it in here and it stood about up to the ceiling up there.
05:56You could still see a stain on the roof from where I had glued something up there to measure it.
06:02That was probably the first statue which gave me a real boost
06:07to say you know this is a career and not just a hobby.
06:13This was my first moment where I felt you know I'm ready to do it
06:18and it wasn't galleries which I'd avoided and which I still avoid
06:25mainly because galleries generally aren't that interested in sculpture.
06:29They're interested in paintings and prints
06:32but sculpture is not really something that many galleries will take on.
06:36If you go to a gallery you'll see small like models, things for your mantelpiece.
06:43Especially after working at Sandy's that's not really what I wanted to do.
06:46I wanted to do you know big statues and monumental work.
06:48After doing Rob Roy I lit a real fire under me to keep going but there was no work.
06:53You know I want to do all these you know amazing pieces of statue.
06:56I call everyone I know I you know I send thousands of emails but you know it's dry.
07:01I don't want to go to the galleries because I don't want to create trinkets.
07:05No galleries are going to make a you know a 20 foot statue to sell because nobody will buy it.
07:10The only way to make big work is is through commissions.
07:13It was probably a year or two struggling with no work that I got my next couple of pieces.
07:22One was for a gallery which was I can't say because it's under NDA
07:29but the artwork I created was for another artist.
07:34Relief that I made for this other artist was in his name for a gallery for him down in London
07:41to which he'd probably sell thousands of copies and make a bucket.
07:46I wasn't allowed to put my name on it which was a bit of a kick in the teeth but I needed the money.
07:50I didn't sign it but I sculpted a wee portrait of myself in the middle of it
07:54which they don't know they still don't know.
07:57So that was the next I guess win if you could say a win.
08:00And then after that there was a few sort of smaller pieces I did.
08:05Really just over the last two years it's really kicked up doing a series of portraits.
08:13And statues for mainly the States.
08:17Over in the States has been more of a fertile ground for creating sculptures.
08:24There's more of an appetite for it there.
08:26I don't have an agent.
08:28I've had a look there doesn't seem to be any agents out there for artists
08:33unless you're I don't know a bank say selling millions of pounds worth of work
08:38or somebody who's you know really established been around for years and years.
08:45But for someone who's still I think growing there's not lots of options around.
08:53At this point it's word of mouth.
08:54The Citizen's Theatre project was really a good one.
08:57It came when I really needed it.
09:00It was something that I hadn't really envisaged myself doing before.
09:05And doing restoration work.
09:08You know it wasn't creating statues.
09:10It wasn't creating new pieces of sculpture.
09:13But they were desperate for someone to fix these statues.
09:16And I put my hand up and took it on.
09:21And it was a bit of a learning curve.
09:25These statues had sat outside for a hundred odd years.
09:28And people had been climbing all over them when they were inside the building.
09:33People had been sticking bits of chewing gum to them or drawing on them.
09:36The project was bringing them back to their former glory or as close as.
09:40But the statues are terrible.
09:41They're falling apart.
09:43Half the leg fell off at one point with I think the scrape of my fingernail.
09:46You know the statues were I think close to being scrapped.
09:51They'd only really been saved by being kept inside for so long.
09:55And they've been recently just put back up onto the new Citizen's Theatre.
09:59Ready for an opening I think next year.
10:01I think there's a bright future for traditional sculpture.
10:03There's been a bit of a swell away from the art school method of doing things.
10:10In my years since leaving art school I've been approached by a lot of people
10:15wanting to come in and learn the trade, to learn the craft.
10:20Disillusioned by what they've been learning.
10:22I've also been seeing a lot of people going to traditional sculpture and painting schools abroad.
10:30And I've seen the rise of that.
10:32So I think there's definitely something happening.
10:34There's a lot of people moving back to more traditional ways of art.
10:39Traditional approaches to painting and sculpture.
10:43Especially in the world where you've got AI created artworks.
10:48I think there's a reaction to it where folk are trying to go in the opposite direction.
10:53Currently I'm writing a book.
10:55Which I've never done but has been a real re-energiser for me.
11:03A novel about a sculptor who makes wee statues that come to life.
11:08And as a whole they go on like a big adventure.
11:10So that's what I've been spending most of my time doing at the minute.
11:14More support is always great.
11:16Creative Scotland though is terrible.
11:17To me it seems like I'm always chasing my tail with them.
11:20There's lots of funding out there for performance art.
11:25Or something that aligns with the gallery expectation of what art is.
11:32And I suppose the folk who are in charge of the funds are probably old art school folk.
11:38Who are that way inclined.
11:41So I don't expect there to be a lot of funding for traditional work.
11:44Which makes my life a lot more difficult.
11:47There are some benefactors out there.
11:48I don't have any.
11:49But I know of a few artists that do have some.
11:53But really my biggest benefactors are the clients.
11:55And the architects who are building these projects with sculpture in mind.
12:02Designing atriums with niches for statues to go in.
12:05Well with the work that I'm creating.
12:09If I don't like it I smash it.
12:10If I don't like it it goes in the bin.
12:14But I keep a few rubbish ones about me just to keep me humble.
12:19So that I can look at them and say don't make that mistake again.
12:23This sculpture here's head is massive.
12:29Don't do that.
12:30So it's good to keep around you some of your bad work as well as your good work.
12:35I keep as much around me as I can.
12:37The rest goes into storage.
12:39Just until I find a bigger space or can buy a bigger space.
12:44Unlike painting.
12:45Making sculpture takes up a lot of real estate.
12:48You create a massive tapestry or painting or a print.
12:52And you can hang it on your wall and it doesn't take up any room.
12:55But make one statue and it takes up 10 times the amount of room.
12:59A small space can get consumed really quickly.
13:04Which I've found out.
13:06My massive plan for moving on from here would be to get probably an industrial unit.
13:13Ideally with an overhead crane where I can save my back.
13:17Just somewhere with lots of room to create bigger and better works.
13:20The process of making the work starts off with an armature.
13:24Which is a skeleton effectively.
13:26So this is an armature here for a bust.
13:32Which is still kind of falling apart.
13:36So this is wood, metal, metal and onto this we build our clay.
13:43Handfuls of clay.
13:44This is really just to support the clay.
13:48To stop it from collapsing.
13:49Because obviously clay is soft and wet.
13:51It needs something to grip onto.
13:53So that's what this is for.
13:55So this is where I probably spend most of my time.
13:57You know, if I was doing a bust.
13:59For example, I would stand here most days.
14:03Turn it, do a bit on it.
14:05Turn it, do a bit on it.
14:07And that's really where the statue gets made.
14:09If you're looking to commission some traditional sculpture.
14:11Then you can find me at my website.
14:14Which is davidjmitchellsculptor.com