Carl Roberts - Sculptor

05/06/2026

Title: Thin Lizzy
Medium: Wood (Unknown Driftwood)

Dimensions: 136 X 36 X 21cm

Collection: Private
Image by Heidi Monika Winkler-Christie

I am learning that the most attractive thing about the Stone Age man was size of the mammoth leg he was carrying. Since there are no more mammoths to hunt, the item you need to be carrying has become the key to an expensive German car. That seems impress the opposite s*x.

Anneline Kriel did not marry the dustman because he was kind or nice, she married a very rich man. As things turned out, it seems that he was not so nice or at least, his rich friend was nicer.

Someone may try and argue that we are no longer the Flintstones. Everything I experience tells me otherwise, even Papa Flintstone has a young, attractive wife. I see similarities in Prehistoric Art. By that I mean that the humans of that era are not very different to us. The Venus figurines may be fat but are 's*xy'. The sculptures and cave paintings are carefully observed and sensitive, and reflect the world they lived in. That is more or less what the artists of today do.

Once I'd made the "Thick W***y" sculpture, then a"Thin Lizzy" work was bound to be next. One is dark wood the other is light wood. It is the Yin to the Yang, the key to the Mercedes Benz!

05/06/2026

Title: Thin Lizzy

Medium: Wood (Unknown Driftwood)

Dimensions: 136 X 36 X 21cm

Collection:  Private

I am learning that the most attractive thing about the Stone Age man was size of the mammoth leg he was carrying. Since there are no more mammoths to hunt, the item you need to be carrying has become the key to an expensi

ve German car. That seems impress the opposite s*x.

Anneline Kriel did not marry the dustman because he was kind or nice, she married a very rich man. As things turned out, it seems that he was not so nice or at least, his rich friend was nicer.

Someone may try and argue that we are no longer the Flintstones. Everything I experience tells me otherwise, even Papa Flintstone has a young, attractive wife. I see similarities in Prehistoric Art. By that I mean that the humans of that era are not very different to us. The Venus figurines may be fat but are 's*xy'. The sculptures and cave paintings are carefully observed and sensitive, and reflect the world they lived in. That is more or less what the artists of today do.

Once I'd made the "Thick W***y" sculpture, then a"Thin Lizzy" work was bound to be next. One is dark wood the other is light wood. It is the Yin to the Yang, the key to the Mercedes Benz!

11/05/2026

Title: “Seek the Deep”

Medium :Wood (Unknown driftwood) 

Dimensions:  22x102x 18cm

Image by Heidi Christie

I like the words that “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (Shakespeare: Hamlet, 1.5.) Despite AI, a computer cannot feel or see a piece of wood let alone know it’s potential. It functions on an algorithm designed by a human.  “Ay, there’s the rub.” (Shakespeare: Hamlet, 3.1.)

I know from experience that this piece of wood is stained by the natural process of lying in a bog. I know that the colouration is permanent.  I imagine that it has been lying in that bog for a very long time.  I am not sure if it is classified as bogwood, but it was certainly on its way to becoming bogwood.  I am not an expert in wood, but I can recognise a few woods and I have several examples of my work in the book “Southern African Wood” (Dyer, James and James. 2016) but I have not mastered the recognition of the grain pattern through a ten x magnification. It gives you a “finger print” to identify the wood with absolute certainty.

I am in the business of making art, not furniture or buildings. In this sculpture I hope that I have conveyed a feeling. The feeling is about escaping the real world.

Escaping the real world by diving, whether with an aqualung, snorkel or just putting my head under the water has been practice of mine since I was six years old.  The aquatic world is a world apart, and it has been a retreat from personal difficulties. When I first started I lived in Tanzania and spent a lot of time snorkeling and exploring the magical coral reefs.  Once your head is in the water, there is an alien world to discover. Its sounds and its sights are strange.  There is a constant crackle of crustations, the colours are strange, and there are caves, holes and ledges to explore.  It is unlike anything on land.

The water also provides a lens to view the alien (human) beings differently. Their bodies glide and their hair floats and for their time in the water they are graceful and rhythmical.  It is for me, a sensual space, a dream world that is a bit of heaven on earth.

This sculpture is at

22/04/2026

Title: “Thick W***y”
Medium : Wood (unknown)
Dimensions: 154 x 38 x 28 cm
Image by .za
“Coneheads” was a comedic science fiction film which I did not see but the characters in the posters look like some people I know. Having a cone head does not make you look intelligent. Physically, it looks as if you have a small brain. Hence “Thick W***y”.

Lack of intelligence or being “thick” is a reason to justify why one distances or shuns that person. Some of that probably has something to do with the fact that the average person thinks that they have above average intelligence. Which is arrogant and conceited. Kindness is much more important quality to have.

I have not always thought that I was intelligent. I once believed that I was a bit dim, but I‘ve now joined the ranks of the average being. Even if I think I am above average I realise that there are all sorts of intelligences. For instance: My friend is very quick witted but not a deep thinker. I have taken advice from a mentally challenged person and his advice proved better than the engineer I was also talking to about same problem. The writer Malcom Gladwell had something to say about geniuses. In short, he says that they specialise and know a lot about a specific thing but can be socially (or in other areas) inept.

The worst part of failing a matric was that I was saddled with a lack of confidence. That was something that I carried with me until I graduated at Rhodes in 1985 at the top of my class.

I went to university to fail! I thought a failed university student was an upgrade from a failed matric student. I was surprised to get through my first year and that gave me hope and a financial problem that I was not prepared for. I had saved money working on the railways as a truck driver, but it was only enough for one year then I was supposed to graduate to the failed student status but I had failed to fail!

Of course, “Thick W***y” is also thick in other places. Perhaps, a cone head with benefits.

17/04/2026

Title: “Thick W***y”

Medium : Wood (unknown)

Dimensions: 154 x 38 x 28 cm

Image by Heidi Monika Winkler-Christie

“Coneheads” was a comedic science fiction film which I did not see but the characters in the posters look like some people I know. Having a cone head does not make you look intelligent. Physically, it looks as if you have a small brain. Hence “Thick W***y”.

Lack of intelligence or being “thick” is a reason to justify why one distances or shuns that person. Some of that probably has something to do with the fact that the average person thinks that they have above average intelligence. Which is arrogant and conceited. Kindness is much more important quality to have.

I have not always thought that I was intelligent. I once believed that I was a bit dim, but I‘ve now joined the ranks of the average being. Even if I think I am above average I realise that there are all sorts of intelligences. For instance: My friend is very quick witted but not a deep thinker. I have taken advice from a mentally challenged person and his advice proved better than the engineer I was also talking to about same problem. The writer Malcom Gladwell had something to say about geniuses. In short, he says that they specialise and know a lot about a specific thing but can be socially (or in other areas) inept.

The worst part of failing a matric was that I was saddled with a lack of confidence. That was something that I carried with me until I graduated at Rhodes in 1985 at the top of my class.

I went to university to fail! I thought a failed university student was an upgrade from a failed matric student. I was surprised to get through my first year and that gave me hope and a financial problem that I was not prepared for. I had saved money working on the railways as a truck driver, but it was only enough for one year then I was supposed to graduate to the failed student status but I had failed to fail!

Of course, “Thick W***y” is also thick in other places. Perhaps, a cone head with benefits.

14/03/2026

Title: “Platanna” Xenopus Laevis
Medium: Wood (bougainvillea, I think) Driftwood.
Dimensions: 15x27x18cm
Photo credit: BrightBlue Photography
Once, when I sold work through Christies in London, I was told that reptiles in general were not very popular. However, my reptiles have been well received and have been fun to make.
I made another beauty called the “blushing love frog” which went off to Australia shortly after it was shown in a gallery in Durban. It seems Australians have a special relationship with cane toads that have invaded and commandeered a large part of their island. Perhaps an icon the Australians can relate to.
I had some experience with frogs and toads as a child. I liked to catch a stray toad in the house or one in in the garden. Perhaps it was to terrorise my mother. It may have been merely so that someone took some notice of me. Since then, I have accidentally caught a few Platannas whilst fishing in freshwater dams or rivers. They like meat, the same bait I might use to catch a barbel but since I do not eat frogs’ legs, they were of no use to me so the ugly, slimy, buggers were immediately thrown back.
The Platanna’s have been to places that I will never go to; Space! They were aboard the Endeavour shuttle in 1992 as a science experiment to see if their eggs could be fertilised in a no gravity situation. The returnee tadpoles can be considered as the first alien life forms to have entered earth. (Google). They are very alien looking, have beady eyes and flat, slimy bodies that are repulsive but sweet and non-threatening.
I do not consider myself as a wildlife artist so the impetus is art and not a resemblance to an animal. It was the wood that made me do it. I started out looking for a fat piece of wood. I was thinking about Henry Moore and things like his sheep piece. Something with volume! As I worked, the pattern and colour of the wood emerged and somehow, that got me onto the frog.
The day the Platanna was completed a representative from a gallery arrived and took the Platanna away in his mother ship. By the time he got home he was seduced by the slimy thing and it was sold.

14/03/2026

Photo credit: Heidi of Brightblue Photography

10/03/2026

07/02/2026

Title: “Young Man”

Medium: Bone (Giraffe Leg)

Dimension: 173x31x40cm

Photo credit:  Heidi of Brightblue Photography

I have previously put two long, giraffe bones together to make a figure (“Flower Power”). The first one was Inspired by my daughter This one is inspired by my son.  Perhaps because he has come home from university to drink dad’s beer.

I am proud of both my children as unlike me at that age they both have degrees.  If only they could get a job!  I think it is a difficult for them.  Despite having no degree or even a matric I got jobs easily.  Admittedly I was aiming low but it is not so easy anymore.

My daughter, Lily, has a master degree (Cum Laude) and Jack has an honour’s degree in I.T.   Two years on Lily still has not found formal employment.  I imagine that with the political and economic hurdles they will struggle.  Perhaps the only option is to be self-employed, as Lily is, or to go abroad. 

Unemployment is not the only problem a young person has to deal with.  I lacked confidence, perhaps all young men do.  I was not big or muscle bound in fact I was the opposite, in that I was small, weak and ignorant and like a lot of young people, I did stupid things.  I was desperate for a girlfriend and unsurprisingly no one was interested.  I was not a good prospect!  

Eventually I got a job on the railways. It earned me a salary and with it I managed to trade prawns for a girlfriend (Margaret).  That brought hope, stability and happiness into my life.  It is amazing what a few prawns can do for you.

This sculpture is gangly and gawky as teenagers are.   However, my son who is twenty something has started to fill out.   He has the benefits of youth and is now taller, bigger and stronger than me. 

 I hope he enjoys his youthfulness and I have no doubt that given time, he will do well.

07/02/2026

Title: “Young Man”
Medium: Bone (Giraffe Leg)
Dimension: 173x31x40cm
Photo credit: Heidi of Brightblue Photography
I have previously put two long, giraffe bones together to make a figure (“Flower Power”). The first one was Inspired by my daughter This one is inspired by my son. Perhaps because he has come home from university to drink dad’s beer.
I am proud of both my children as unlike me at that age they both have degrees. If only they could get a job! I think it is a difficult for them. Despite having no degree or even a matric I got jobs easily. Admittedly I was aiming low but it is not so easy anymore.
My daughter, Lily, has a master degree (Cum Laude) and Jack has an honour’s degree in I.T. Two years on Lily still has not found formal employment. I imagine that with the political and economic hurdles they will struggle. Perhaps the only option is to be self-employed, as Lily is, or to go abroad.
Unemployment is not the only problem a young person has to deal with. I lacked confidence, perhaps all young men do. I was not big or muscle bound in fact I was the opposite, in that I was small, weak and ignorant and like a lot of young people, I did stupid things. I was desperate for a girlfriend and unsurprisingly no one was interested. I was not a good prospect!
Eventually I got a job on the railways. It earned me a salary and with it I managed to trade prawns for a girlfriend (Margaret). That brought hope, stability and happiness into my life. It is amazing what a few prawns can do for you.
This sculpture is gangly and gawky as teenagers are. However, my son who is twenty something has started to fill out. He has the benefits of youth and is now taller, bigger and stronger than me.
I hope he enjoys his youthfulness and I have no doubt that given time, he will do well.