Food, Entrepreneurship and Figurative Sculpture with Michael Speller

Today, Lucy Branch talks to Michael Speller,  charismatic contemporary sculptor who has many works in public places in the UK including outside the iconic Millbank Tower in London, Greenwich Hospital and Loch Lomond as well as abroad.  His work is all about distinctive figurative forms which play with ideas around balance and rhythm in our lives.  Michael discusses his creative journey in becoming a professional sculptor, his inspiration and his love of bronze. Join us and BE INSPIRED BY SCULPTURE.  You can find images of Michael Speller's work and a transcription of the interview at https://sculpturevulture.co.uk/figurative-sculpture-with-michael-speller/ If you are looking for a new book, the novel mentioned in this interview is currently available free from Sculpture Vulture.  This podcast was brought to you by Antique Bronze Snippet from the interview:  Lucy: I began our discussion today by asking him, if he'd always been creative? Michael: Yes. I've been creative all my life in different guises, really. I suppose the first thing was I created my own mobile beach cocktail bar and ended up taking it to Corfu and doing a summer in Corfu. So, there was a commercial element to it, but also the most important thing to me was just creating something that had never been created before. And this was like a big ball wheelbarrow but built up with a wooden stretcher and a trap door underneath a parasol with a parrot called, Harriet, hanging off the side of it and crushed ice underneath and cocktails. Now, the funny thing with it, the whole idea was it was supposed to move but basically it never moved because everyone ran to me and were so enthusiastic about this mad thing on the beach that I always had queues and I was handing in brochures the next summer to all of the core marketing people. Lucy: That's fantastic. really entrepreneurial as well. Michael: Exactly. And then progressing from that my catering element was where I started…that's what I did at college. I did a catering management course at Oxford Poly as it was then. Then I went on to start my own catering business which, again, was a little bit unusual. We're talking a hell of a long time ago now but it was the first, sort of, delivery service. This is before even pizzas were delivered or they were just starting to be. This was an up-market delivery service with monkfish and prawn sort of pies and loads of exotic ingredients. And I was racing around in a dinner jacket serving these in Blackheath and Greenwich. Lucy: I bet they loved that.