The Beginning
My work has never stood still.
I've been drawn to art, colour, design and making things from an early age. At boarding school, my art teacher Miss Fry was hugely inspirational, and I spent much of my spare time in the art centre experimenting and developing my creative instincts.
I later studied at Bournemouth Art Institute, where we were encouraged to abandon familiar approaches, experiment with mark-making and explore different media, photography and ways of seeing. Music was also a major creative influence, through my involvement in Jungle and Drum & Bass.
Originally from England, I moved to New Zealand, where I continued making and experimenting while travelling around the North Island in a housetruck, eventually settling in Taumarunui.
Drawn increasingly toward three-dimensional work, I joined a local carving course and entered the world of Te Toi Whakairo.
And that changed everything!
Entering Whakairo
My first teacher was Kaiako Kenny Jones, who taught me the foundations of carving. I remain grateful to Kenny for giving me that beginning and I hold that part of my journey with respect.
Then Master Carver Te Kuiti Stewart came to visit the school.
Te Kuiti carried extraordinary knowledge, a beautiful character and enormous mana. He recognised something in my work and, to my amazement, encouraged me to enter the degree programme Te Maunga Kura Toi at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.
From there, my development accelerated. Under Te Kuiti's guidance I was challenged to work harder, think more deeply and push my abilities much further. He also opened doors to exhibitions, events and opportunities beyond the classroom, becoming a hugely influential teacher and mentor in my life.
I later continued my studies under master carver Hohepa Peni, graduating with excellence in 2013.
Those years gave me more than technical carving skills. They gave me a foundation in discipline, form, symbolism, storytelling and three-dimensional thinking — foundations that continue to influence everything I make today.
Finding My Own Voice
With my whakairo training behind me, I began developing my own direction as an artist. I taught carving, created commissions and public artworks, and explored ways of taking the knowledge and skills I had developed into new forms.
Birds and other natural forms became an important part of this journey. I was interested in how traditional carving knowledge could inform contemporary ideas, and increasingly began combining strong carved forms with colour, movement, light and imaginative concepts.
My work moved between personal pieces and large community projects, from carved birds and waharoa to public installations and illuminated sculptures.
I was no longer simply learning how to carve. I was discovering what I wanted to say with it.
That process eventually led me beyond carving itself.
Beyond Carving
As my practice evolved, I began pushing the ideas and skills I had developed through whakairo into increasingly experimental territory.
Light, colour, wire, movement and technology became new materials for my thinking. I created illuminated Tiki and Manu Aute, mobiles, conceptual sculptures and other experimental works, exploring how familiar forms could be transformed into something unexpected.
The work became less about staying within one tradition or material, and more about following an idea wherever it led.
The discipline and knowledge gained through carving remained at the foundation, but my imagination was pulling me further outward — towards movement, light, technology, recycled materials and new possibilities.
The boundaries between carving, sculpture, design and experimentation began to disappear.
And somewhere in that process, Future Primitive began to make sense.
Future Primitive
FUTURE PRIMITIVE is the name I've carried through much of my creative life.
To me, it represents a meeting point between the ancient and the futuristic — raw materials, hands-on craftsmanship, symbolism and imagination combined with experimentation, technology and new ways of thinking.
My work has moved from wood to light, wire and movement, and eventually into recycled metal. I am drawn to materials that have already lived another life, transforming discarded and forgotten objects into sculptural forms with new character and meaning.
I don't see this as leaving my earlier work behind. The knowledge, discipline and ways of seeing developed through art school, whakairo and years of making continue to sit underneath everything I do.
The materials change. The ideas evolve. The journey continues.
I am always looking forward, searching for new forms, new possibilities and new ways to transform what is already around me. Always aiming forward — towards the stars.
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