Ephemeral work made outside, for and about a day, lies at the core of my art and its making must be kept private.

I go way beyond just the wood and stone but to the process of growth and farming and the tensions between the two.

People do not realise that many of my works are done in urban places. I was brought up on the edge of Leeds, five miles from the city centre-on one side were fields and on the other, the city.

I'm cautious about using fire. It can become theatrical. I am interested in the heat, not the flames.

We often forget that we are nature.

I think I have been fashioned by the fickle weather of Britain that it is - it's forever changing. There's no kind of constant sun or dry weather or freezing weather, and I'm always having to change and adapt to that.

In contact with materials, I can see so much more with my hands than I can just with my eyes. I'm a participant, not a spectator. I see myself both as an object and a material, and the human presence is really important to the landscapes in which I work.