Dr Fenwick Lawson

I am such a proud daughter. My father, Fenwick Lawson is a sculptor and he has just recently been honoured with an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Durham University. It was a wonderful day.

He is now going to be made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Durham - it's going to happen in next month.

Then a little while after, a bronze of his sculpture of 'The Journey' is going to be unveiled in Durham City in Millennium Square. I don't think I am allowed to give out the dates yet so I won't mention them - yet! It's such a tremendous thing to be happening to both him and my mam who have both worked so hard all of their lives. They are both 76 and are still working. Mam is a Durham quilter and a fantastic writer of stories.

'The Journey' is the history of Durham City. Fen carved it from elm trees in 2000 and it consists of six over life-size figures carrying the body of St. Cuthbert. This is what Fen says about it:

"The Lindisfarne community arrived in Dunholme (Durham) in the year 995, around one hundred years after fleeing from the viking raids on Lindisfarne. The Monks, with the uncorrupted body of their Saint, founded Durham as refugees.

With this significance in mind and some nerve, considering Rodin's "The Burghers of Calais", I saw this epic journey as a great theme for a sculpture: a journey of faith, a journey of hope and a journey of love for fellow man; a brotherhood: by that I mean an association of partnership, of community, forged by the necessity of co-operative effort. I experienced this same concept while growing up in the mining village of Craghead near Durham. Without these fundamentals, the community could not survive - the mining community, whether man, woman or child, they are all interdependent for their lives.

The sculpture was started in 1997 using seven elm trees. Elm relates to my experience with the character of this wood, which I often use. It is a very vigorous wood and, when split, presents a vitality of movement in the form of it's growth which I can develop. The idea of movement, implied in 'The Journey" itself, is a main factor in the visual language of the sculpture. The movement suggested in each of the six figures; the movement in the different attitudes of the heads; the suggested movement in and between the unfinished / finished hands; the movement expressed by the chainsaw on the surface and in the carved line."

You can see more of Fenwick's work on his website and on mine - 

http://www.anannaimage.com

http://www.fenwicklawson.co.uk