Andrew Griffiths was born in Wallasey in 1956, but grew up on the North Wales coast. He spent several years performing as lead singer of a punk band before attending the Central School of Art, London, in 1983. After graduation he worked for seven years at the A&A Sculpture Casting Foundry, London, before moving to South Wales and becoming a lecturer. He is currently Head of Department at the West Wales School of the Arts, and is studying for an MA at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. The college has a large foundry facility, and has been involved with the BAMS Student Medal Project for the last five years, with some success. Of his medal, The moon pulls at the tides and the emotions within us, the artist writes: ‘I live on a tidal estuary, so am reminded every day of the rise and fall of the sea. Most of my free time is spent in or on the water, which reinforces this awareness. The fact the tides are caused by the proximity of the moon seems to me almost magical. The moon is represented on the medal by a polished surface with slight indents and is shown as full, the phase when it exerts the most pull on the sea. The obverse is a portrait of my daughter, who pulls at my heart in the same way as the moon pulls at the sea. I was attempting to illustrate the belief that the moon affects our behaviour and causes us to act irrationally, hence the werewolf, to be moonstruck, or to howl at the moon. The edge has the stages of the tides high and low written on it, as well as SPRING TIDE and NEAP TIDE, the highest and lowest tides of the year and the points at which the moon is nearest and furthest away from the earth.’