Tricia

As I was starting the armature for the lay figure, I noticed a stranger, in the car-park, looking the studio up and down. Her name was Tricia and it turned out that her grand-mother had been born here when it was a workhouse in the 19th century and that her family came from the village.  Imagine being in one of those places.

If that was not fascinating enough, it transpired  that she was from Melbourne.  And then Tricia revealed that she had, that same day, driven from Donington where she visited Matthew Flinders's birthplace.  My first thought was that she was a plant (the day I start the first of the two large figures, a Flinders fan turns up at the door), although I could not imagine who from. This notion had, on reflection, sprung from a baseless feeling of self-importance that had overwhelmed me since being filmed by the BBC earlier in the month.  In any case, Tricia, it turns out, is a gem and this is a big thank-you to her for her encouraging words about the sculpture.