Linda Thompson is one of the founding members of Yorkshire Sculptors Group. Her work is often figurative and responds directly to a personal or historical location or event. At other times she responds in an abstract way, working from the sense of balance and mass to be found in the rocky landscapes of North Yorkshire. Having experimented with a wide range of media earlier in her career she now works mainly in ceramics and water based resins.
“For generations my family worked in woollen mills or as hand loom weavers within Yeadon and Armley. The piece photographed here, with its interchangeable heads, is intended to reflect a family’s link to their industrial lineage over centuries, each generation working to live and survive in the labour intensive environment of a city.”
“Photographs of working class individuals in the 19th century are rarely found in family archives. However I came across a single photo of my 2 x great grandfather, a hand loom weaver, in a local history magazine. According to this magazine he had a long white beard which he wore tucked into his vest during the week (possibly for warmth and safety) but then wore outside on a Sunday.”