I once asked a few of the EnglaID researchers, what moments in their work had most moved them?, had made them stop, had surprised them ?.The answer from two people was that very simple human marks had affected them: a thumb print on a pot, a mark showing a grasp of a hand. These were the modest marks that had touched them.

Some months later while cooking at home, my chopping board broke in half. Something about this well used object, made me takes it directly into the studio, rather than throw it away.

The next day, while looking at the two pieces of wood, balanced against a white wall, I thought about how the chop marks equaled years of meals, giving the wood some direct emotional value.

A chop mark could be seen as a violent mark, made by a knife, but these marks never had that impression on me.

These were delicate and precise ‘touch marks’, they had transformed food, and maybe because of a particularly intense period of drawing outdoors, they also reminded me of landscapes.

Each board was individual, but the landscape was not reminiscent of a particular place ,but rather in the same way that a child (or adult!) might see patterns, or images on wallpaper or in clouds, the grain of wood and the fine chop marks suggested themselves as landscapes.

So, a series evolved, kind friends donated boards, not always an easy thing to do. These are precious, everyday objects baring marks of countless family celebrations, or more mundane moments around a table, and they were hard to give away.

The beautiful circularity of using these boards to describe landscape ,is that they originate from the land. What was once a tree in the landscape becomes a kitchen board, now made into a drawing of land, and then into a gallery exhibition space. The last twist is that the gallery: The Old Fire Station, where these works have been showing, happens to open directly onto Gloucester Green market, selling vegetables, cheese, fish meat, about to be transformed into a meal using a chopping board..and on..and on..

A great many thanks to all at The Old Fire Station and all at EnglaID, for their support in this work.

Chop Marks

The Old Fire Station

40 George Street

Oxford OX1 2AQ

Until November 8^th (closed Monday and Sunday)