Gary Solomon

2 May 2019

I bought a copper covered wooden fire surround about 30 years ago.  After about 10 years I threw it our on hard rubbish and then had second thoughts and retrieved it.  When my daughters were young I bought them a book to read to them “ The Ugly Duckling”  On reading it I felt some very deep emotion within myself when the Duckling first heard the wild cries of the swans flying overhead.  With this story resonating within me I decided to use the fire surround in a sculpture of the ugly duckling.  It was mounted on a large piece of steel and there it stood in my garden all alone for the next 15 years or so.  Then last year I found another copper fire surround.  I tried to make another bird sculpture with it but it annoyed me and it didn’t look resolved.  So a few weeks ago I took both sculptures out of the garden and with a friend I pulled the second sculpture apart and integrated it with the first sculpture.  When I had finnished I had the Ugly Duckling standing under a sign post facing a new direction.

So as a metaphor for my life I find this sculpture to be very significant for me.