copyright Giles Wright 2004 - contact for Quality Prints
Picture of Giles Wright and 'Ear Shell Blows' in creation
Portland Limestone

Hello and welcome to Dreamstone. I am Giles Wright, The Sculptor. My art is about the abundance and beauty of life in its many forms. I love nature and wildlife and I am very concerned with environmental matters. I am disturbed by the alarming extinction rate worldwide of both plants and animal/aquatic life. The implications of this fact are too dire and unpleasant to be fully appreciated. So my art is to show people the shear beauty we are destroying. I believe the time for ego-driven statuettes of the human form has passed. It is nature's turn to take precedence, to be held high and gloried in. I hope to create awarness and to engage my audience in a dialogue about the environment that they will take home and use.

As well as displaying my sculptural exploits this site is about my interests. 'Art in mental health' and the therapeutic stone sculpting classes I run for people that have experienced mental health problems and those from disadvantaged backgrounds are a particular interest to which I have devoted much time recently. I feel strongly that mental ill-health is still widely misunderstood and stigmatized. This at a time when the facts are that a large percentage of us go through a serious mental health problem or crisis at some point in our lives.

 
New Notes about this homepage: Click here for Latest News and don't miss The Sculptor's view of art here

As I've mentioned the environment, wildlife and mental health; I should also mention that in the past I have used the production of my work, in public space, to highlight/publicise the work of various charities. I helped the, then fledgling, RockingHorse Appeal become better known in Brighton back in the early 1990's. I now realise there is a lot more Dreamstone could do...

Dreamstone has previously received funding from the Millenium Fund and the Arts Council of England. Dreamstone has hosted therapeutic stone carving classes in the community; in conjunction with MIND and more recently, Care Co-ops in Brighton.
 

Arts Council of England - Click to follow link in a new browser window... MIND - Click to follow link in a new browser window... Millennium Awards Fellowship - Click to follow link in a new browser window...


Art - An Opinion from Giles Wright, The Sculptor:

I am someone that marvels at good workmanship and maybe I have an old fashioned sense or view of art. I have not studied art in college and I think that is to my advantage when relating my views to people in the street. John Skelton taught me a way of looking at sculpture, about the grace and beauty of form and flow of line; classical values that appear lost in much art produced today.

I am someone that firmly believes art and sculpture should stand on its own merits - without need for a contrived meaning to explain it. Good art does not need to be site specific and could be placed almost anywhere - bringing its own character and meaning to any given space. Good art is recognisable anywhere - it does not need the context of a gallery and a description in order to persuade us mere mortals that we are witnessing a work of art.

I think that a large proportion of 'Modern Art' does not meet the above criteria. The lack of beauty and the apparent decline in the skills and general craftsmanship used to create art, coupled with a reliance (in UK almost an addiction...) on fleeting sensationalism and contrived explanations has devalued much art in the eyes of the public. Sensation is a driving force of commercial/business art but it does not produce High art. Once the sensation is passed, people judge the art primarily based on its aesthetics - if beauty is not present, the work is of little substance - in which case the work is invariably removed or replaced. Much art has lost value in the public eye because the contrived explanations and justifications, so prized by many in the "Art Elite", have simply mocked their audience too far.

High art or, in my words, good art does meet my criteria and has a timeless quality. Because of this timeless quality, High art has an innate value that is not dictated entirely by fashion. High art is what I believe public art should be, and that is what I hope to aspire to with my art.

I know some may quote a well known, current artist's work, thinking it contradicts what I have said, but I ask you...

When the sensation has died down - will anyone want the work in their home, their garden, or their street..? Would you want to live with it..?

Next time you visit a gallery... look at the art and ask yourself this question:-
If you saw this work on a pavement propped up against a garden wall or in the middle of a field with no accompanying description or price ticket - what would you think...?
(a) "My, someones lost a valuable bit of art work; imagine the hard work, skill and time it took to make that...", or
(b) "Mmmmm looks like a child has lost a toy or a school project... Shouldn't that be in a rubbish bin..?!"
If your answer is (b) too often - then I suggest a change of gallery!
 

Site Notes

This site was originally created by an impovrished artist (me!) back in 1999 with Dreamweaver 4... Note to self: only the year has changed..! ;-)

I am proud that the whole site including all pictures etc., takes up less than 9MB of HDD space..!!

Please note that all work on this site and the site itself were made by myself, Giles Wright (unless otherwise stated). All sculptural work, ideas, images, shapes/forms and the name "Dreamstone" are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any form without my prior written consent.

Quality prints of any photos in this site can be obtained from myself and all work is for sale unless otherwise stated... all enquiries via contact button.

Do take a while to look at the gallery and don't forget the Creation section where you can see how the sculpture are made from start to finish. The "Creation" section is quite regularily updated (in summer) so don't forget to for future reference. Well I hope you enjoy this site - and please do tell your friends. All the best...

Giles Wright, The Sculptor.

 

Latest News

Help Dreamstone get 'Love' in Bronze placed in Brighton & Hove City - see article here

Update January 2006: Much of the site content has been revised. In particular I ask you to look at the Dreamstone page as there are some exciting developments there. There are some new pictures of 'Love' in the gallery and the Classes page is also updated with important new information for sponsors...

Update December 2005: Newer jazzier website design. Made possible with help from 3sixty (LindenJ) - contact him via the links page. Hope you like the new touches. You can bookmark almost any page now and there's a Google search box below the navigation panel - so why not make Dreamstone your new homepage...!!

Update November 2005: 'Love' and 'Ear-Shell-Blows' now in pride of place at Mill View Hospital, Hove. To see the Mill View Hospital Exhibition story click here

Update August 2005: New sculpture added to Gallery: 'Ear-Shell-Blows' Hope you like it..! Creation and Current Work pages have also been updated - now you can see drawings of my next sculptural challenge "Orchiding"... ;o))

Update May 2005: You can now chat with me, Giles, direct or leave me a message or just shoot the breeze with whoever's online at the time... Just hit the new "Chat" button - new Mirc applet courtesy of my friend Daan... Great for staying in touch on the move... ;o))