David's sculptures really get inside your head

From his forge at Lockton near Pickering he has produced beautiful ironwork gates such as those that adorn the entrance to Treasurer's House in York and the ones he is now working on for Newburgh Priory.

But he has also exhibited his exquisite metal sculptures widely across the region: at the Ryedale Folk Museum, alongside work by the painter Gail Hurst, and at the Inspired by... gallery at the North York Moors National Park centre in Danby.

It is safe to say his latest sculptures are quite unlike anything he has tried his hand at before, however. Because they are inspired by the inside of his own brain.

A few years ago, as he was approaching his 50th birthday, David was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition known as hemiplegic migraine.

It is a condition that, about twice every week, leaves him completely incapacitated by crippling migraines.

"I become completely paralysed all down one side, and can't speak," he said. "It lasts for about 8-10 hours, and then afterwards it is like having the world's worst hangover."

He naturally began researching the condition - and it was then that he went back to his old neurology notes from the long-ago days when he studied Zoology at Bristol University.

He was struck by diagrams showing neurons in the brain - and particularly the tiny gaps between individual neurons known as synapses.

Image of two neurons meeting at a synapse

When an electrical impulse passes through the brain, it runs along neurons (each of which is a single nerve cell) then 'jumps' across the synapses using a chemical transmitter. That's how messages are passed along through our nervous system, he says.

What most struck him, however, was the shape of the neurons. At the end of each long, sinuous neuron is a little bulge or swelling. Then you have the tiny gap of the synapse, and another neuron that also ends in a swelling.

He has now used these images to create a series of small metal sculptures that represent the neurons and synapses inside his own head.

They're wonderfully organic, almost living pieces: the neurons writhing like sinuous eels, the bulbous heads confronting each-other across the narrow gap of the synapse.

One of David's neuron sculptures

In some of the sculptures, David has even put a barrier in between two neurons, blocking the synapse - a kind of symbol of what goes on in his head when he has a migraine.

Two neurons separated by a bar in another of David's sculptures

The new series of sculptures will be on show this Sunday at the 12 Guisborough Forest festival at Guisborough near Great Ayton, just north of the North York Moors.

And will he be looking to bring them to York at any time?

Funny you should say that, he says. "At the moment I'm looking for a platform to display them."

In the meantime, the 54-year-old is hoping a change of medication will reduce the severity and frequency of the migraine attacks that have plagued him for so long.

"I've gone five days without one!" he said.

Fingers crossed.

• David Stephenson's neuron sculptures will be on display at the 12th Guisborough Forest festival at Guisborough, Cleveland, on Sunday September 6. David will also have a mobile forge with him, to demonstrate the craft of ironworking.