Art tutor Paul's 'Emily' statue gets fitting home to commemorate Covid's frontline workers
A sculpture, created by York College Art & Design tutor Paul Digby to commemorate pandemic frontline workers, has been given a fitting permanent home at St James’s Hospital in Leeds.
The emotive statue, which depicts Intensive Care Unit nurse Emily Greaves-Brayne, is now on display in the hospital’s Memorial Garden after being given a new support plinth by York College Stonemasonry tutor Paul Hill in our workshop.
Emily only started her NHS career at St James’s in January 2020 – the same month that the World Health Organisation declared the Covid-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern and a couple of months before the UK went into Lockdown, as the coronavirus tragically claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people in this country.
Recalling his inspiration for the sculpture, Paul said: “During the pandemic, I kept seeing a friend of mine called Jane, who was in charge of the ICU ward at St James's, in the supermarket and, each time I saw her, she looked more and more frazzled.
“I told her about the sculpture idea I had to honour the unbelievable work they were doing and she put me in contact with Emily, who had just started nursing on the ICU ward and was right in the centre of it.
"Jane told me how Emily would always be the one sat at the bedside with a patient when they were dying and she would hold their hand at a time when they couldn’t see their family. I set up a Go Fund Me page and got quite a lot of support for the project.”
A 15-month process, costing between £4,000 and £5,000, then followed from the day when Emily was photographed in full PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) at a studio during a time when social distancing regulations were still being enforced.
Paul made a clay model based on the images taken and a two-part mould was then made by fabricators – a technique Paul now teaches to adults in his York School of Art Clay Modelling evening class at College.
The moulds, made from fibreglass, alpha plaster and polymer, were then dried for almost four months before being forged together, with a pigment added to give a darker colour for the final sculpture, named “Emily: Looking to the Future.”
Our Stonemasonry tutor Paul then added the final touch with the plinth base, which his namesake was delighted by.
“It’s absolutely fantastic,” Paul enthused. “I couldn't have asked for better and the quality is top notch.
“It looks so professional and I appreciate all the work Paul put into it because this was a second attempt after the weight distribution wasn’t quite right with the first one.”
“Emily”, who was also the inspiration for a poem by renowned Yorkshire poet, playwright and broadcaster Ian McMillan, has returned to St James’s having previously been on show there during a poignant post-pandemic get-together in the hospital’s atrium.
“We had a very emotive exhibition, as all the ICU staff came back,” Paul recalled. “A lot of them hadn’t come back together since the pandemic, so it was a very emotional day, probably more so than we'd all anticipated and there were a few tears.”
Paul has delivered lessons at College for close to 30 years and on a more regular basis during the past five, mainly teaching A Level Fine Art and Level 3 vocational students, having previously been an Art Foundation student with us, himself, during the 1990s.
He went on to study a Fine Art degree at Norwich University of the Arts and a Master’s at the University of Leeds.
Alongside his part-time teaching responsibilities, he is also a successful artist, who has exhibited across prominent UK institutions including London's Saatchi Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, the Royal Society of Sculptors Gallery and the Cornerhouse in Manchester.
He spent this summer drawing and painting fish and chip shops from Northumberland to Norfolk!
To see more of Paul's work, click here
For more information on York College's Art & Design courses, visit here
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