The Inspiration
In 2012, inspired by the Olympics and my love of ceramic figures, I decided to marry the two elements and create a sculpture of Boris Johnson who was mayor of London at that time. The idea was seeded after a visit to Brighton and Hove museum and a long thinking walk which is how I usually formulate my ideas. I knew I loved pottery, and I knew I loved figures, and without any thought, Boris popped into my head as the best chap for the project. At that time he was a well-loved and popular figure. And despite the storms he may have weathered since, I still stand by my choice of Boris for my project, as his sense of fun and larger-than-life character is especially suited to the the toby jug theme, which is usually to depict someone a little rogueish who loves life to excess.
Also I have always had a very deep and sneeky admiration for another naughty fella who turned my hometown, Brighton, from sleepy fishing village into the the hub of creativity it is today: the very naughty Prince Regent George IV, also referred to as Prinny. He too was a larger than life character and often lampooned by the press of his day. But the fact is Brighton would still be a sleepy town, if the Prince had not put his stamp on it by building the extravagant Royal Pavilion, and inviting all his rich buddies who then commissioned the architect Nash to design all the gorgeous regency architecture which is such a feature of Brighton and Hove today.
Here's a fabulous painting by the artist Whistler which is aptly named ' HRH the Prince Regent Awakening the Spirit of Brighton'.
My Boris Johnson sculpture intentionally doesn't conform to the Toby jug format of handle and jug, but borrows the humour and fun of the Toby jug genre and blends it with the character of Boris Johnson. During Boris's time as Mayor of London, he was well known for his love of cycling to work each day, and well known for his humorous antics. So it was a wonderful challenge to combine a figure with a bike, with plenty of humour and fun, but which would also be anchored in time by a unique, historic event: the 2012 Olympics in Britain.
