Can You Fix It —
by John Adamson

Description:

This carving was made in complete secrecy for the recipients 60th birthday. I was working from two small photographs and his wife’s memory that the bike was a Honda 350. The Internet showed that there were 4 different models but I could not work out which one fitted the pictures I had. Eventually I asked the East Leeds Lions MCC for help and they came back within 24 hours with a definitive identification and good pictures of the model. To get the bike to stand right with a correct angle of the front wheel I needed a model I could actually measure, so I made up one of those plastic kits. It was a level 4 kit and very difficult to assemble, but as some fairly drastic simplification would be required in the final carving, I was able to leave off the fiddly bits. The sculpture is about a motorcycle that has broken down again, which was my experience of motorcycles and the commissioners. It’s that moment when feminine impatience about how long the repair is taking comes into conflict with concern about the fixers confidence about their ability to mend it.