Nesta Pilkington Sculpture Devon, United Kingdom

  Back to profiles Invite to apply

Nesta Pilkington is the working name of Suzy Maxwell MA (Falmouth 2006). A main concept of the work is a love of animals, who they are and how they touch our lives. Where we and they 'meet' is a sort of cross-species connection. It is a spiritual connection and when they inevitably die, we feel it as an unbelievably deep loss. The sculptures are an interpretation of this inter-relationship.

As Suzy Maxwell I started off with Botanical Illustration on the Falmouth MA (Illustration and Authorial Practice. I developed this fascination of form and design and especially the reproductive and survival habits of plants, from the experience of becoming pregnant and giving birth to my baby (Luba, now 27). My practice developed at Falmouth into mural (trompe l'oeil) painting - therefore the ideas of 3 dimensional illusory form entered my practice and I enjoyed working with dream material too in a surrealist (Leonora Carrington) sort of way.

At the same time I was working as a bespoke picture framer (www.silverhammer-frames.co.uk) (2013-present), which has thrived, I'm glad to say. But after the death of my first dog Ziggy after 14 years of knowing her from a pup and through core years of my life, which includes the growing up of my daughter, the split with her father, the death of my mother plus two years of Jungian Psychoanalysis during lockdown (including lots of sploshy paintings), I turned to sculpture again (I made a self portrait head in 1999 with a mysterious fin on the top of her head) and have not turned back.

Clay, either fired or self hardening, made into resin cast or not, and then mounted on a plinth (plinths are kin of pictureframes) are definitely how I need to express myself about my relationship with animals and humans.

I have treated myself to some mentoring with Janis Ridley and have been egged on by Peter Randall Page, whose family I have known for 20 years on and off. I debuted at Chagford Show recently, specifically available for commissions to keep my creative fire fed! and have had wonderful comments, my most favourite from a little girl called Olive who wrote 'Nesta is clever', which warmed the cockles of my heart.