HEALING
Sculptures inspired by psychotherapy
A film of Rick’s 2023 sculpture exhibition, including some background and some of the thinking that went into it.
Running time: 26 minutes
This exhibition was held at the Original Gallery, Hornsey Library in London between 7 June and 4 July 2023 and raised over £20,000 for three local mental health charities.
It provoked a lot of interest, so Rick is now seeking another venue for a longer exhibition of the work, hoping to raise more awareness and more funding for mental health.
The sculptures are still available, both as unsold originals and as replicas – see here for details.
All proceeds and donations to:
Making sculpture has been a lifelong passion of mine, drawing and painting too. Especially depicting people.
At the same time, I’ve always been fascinated by the workings of the human body and the human mind. I was a GP and a psychotherapist, and my own experiences of having psychotherapy on and off over many years have been enormously helpful and greatly enriched my life.
So this exhibition, in the autumn of my years, is an attempt to bring these threads together and to share them with anyone who might be interested. In a way, I’m making public what has been so private.
The world of psychotherapy represents for me something good and affirming and hopeful about human nature. It speaks of our better potential, and our capacity to help one another manage our difficulties.
I’ve chosen these particular sculptures, not only to acknowledge the struggles that we all have to face at various times (many artists have done that) but also to celebrate our capacity to work through our difficulties with help and support. And if we’re lucky, to find love and joy and inner peace.
I’ve not worked from any clear plan in making the pieces that form this exhibition. Rather they’ve emerged quite spontaneously at different times, and it’s only now in retrospect that I’ve ordered them in a way that leads from despair to hope, a journey that is never a straight line.
Some of the work here was made between 1983 and 1989 while attending art schools and much of it has been made in the last 20 years since I retired.
Some of the pieces are preliminary models which could be scaled up. A few of them, if enlarged, might work as public sculpture. I like the idea of helping in some small way to bring our mental health out of the shadows, and promote wider understanding, acceptance and discussion. And I’m also glad to use this opportunity to raise funds for three excellent mental health organisations.
I hope people will donate generously to the charities. In addition most of the sculptures will be up for sale, with all of the money raised also going to the charities.