Slate | Everlasting Embrace
Everlasting Embrace is a monumental memorial sculpture formed from hand-stacked Lakeland Blue slate, created as a tribute to a husband and a father. It is one of the most emotionally resonant works I have made, and one that carries with it a deep sense of responsibility. Making memorial sculpture is always a humbling process; it requires listening closely, working slowly and allowing the form to hold what words often cannot.
The work takes the sphere as its starting point; a form long associated with wholeness, continuity and the enduring nature of love. Rather than presenting the sphere as a closed object, it is carefully opened and separated, allowing meaning to emerge through structure rather than explanation.
The sculpture is divided into two distinct yet inseparable elements. One gently draws away from the other, acknowledging loss and absence, while the larger mass remains protective in character, continuing to shelter the smaller form within the original spherical footprint. Though separated, both parts remain held within the same boundary, preserving a sense of connection that is not broken by distance or time.
Between these two forms is a curved passageway, deliberately scaled to allow the viewer to walk through the heart of the sculpture. This transitional space is integral to the work. It invites physical movement and quiet reflection, offering a moment where memory, grief, and continuity coexist without instruction or resolution. The act of passing through the sculpture becomes personal and intimate, shaped by the experience of the individual rather than the intent of the maker.
Constructed using traditional dry-stone principles, Everlasting Embrace is built entirely by hand from slate sourced from the Lake District, including material from Kirkby and Furnace. Almost fourteen tonnes of stone were split, shaped and stacked to form the work. The natural layering of the slate softens the geometry and allows the sculpture to settle calmly into its landscape, where light, shadow, and weather continue to deepen its presence over time.
While profoundly personal in origin, Everlasting Embrace also speaks more broadly as a contemporary memorial sculpture, one that balances monumentality with human scale. Works of this kind sit within the realm of commemorative sculpture and architectural memorial art, conceived for private gardens, estates and contemplative landscapes. Each memorial commission is unique, shaped by context, site and story, with form remaining the constant thread through which remembrance is both felt and endured.
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