Featured artist: Fidelma Massey
These amazing green men were created by our featured artist this month:
Fidelma Massey studied at the School of Art, Dun Laoghaire majoring in Fine Art/Sculpture (Stonecarving, Claymodeling, Drawing and Ceramics). She was engaged in commercial ceramics until 1986, after which time she returned to her original interest in pure sculpture, working with bronze, stone and ceramics. She also makes drawings and stained glass. Fidelma has shown work in many group exhibitions: Royal Hibernian Academy, Sculpture in Context, Iontas, L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris. She shows work regularly with a number of galleries including the Origin, Hallward, Gormleys and Designyard Galleries in Dublin; the Lavit in Cork; Greenacres in Wexford, the Greenlane Gallery,
Dingle ( and Paris ), the Kilrealig Gallery, Ballinsceligs, both in Co. Kerry, and Strassacker Gallerie, Sussen, Germany.
You can find more about Fidelma’s magical work on her website at: http://www.irishsculpture.com/
Woodcarving & Sculpture
Green Man
When he began carving, COTGM member Mick Waterhouse turned to churches to find what he considered the finest of the craft to study and copy. It was there that he came across the archetypal “Green Man” image that has appeared in architecture and decoration through the ages.
This Image, the combination of foliage with faces and the human form, runs through much of his work and expresses his feelings on the significance of man’s influence on and place in the organic cycle, as well as hinting at an ancient mystecism that medieval craftsmen left in their work.
Mick works in locally found timbers, especially Oak, which he finds lends itself to the “tooled” finish he prefers. You can see more of Mick’s work on our flickr site or at: http://www.sculptureatbicester.org.uk/MickWaterhousePersonalPage.html
The Company of the Green Man 