My Holiday Romance with the Lion Heart

Well now I know another beautiful part of the world, the Algarve in Portugal, and yes I am going to bore you with holiday pictures!

I wasn't looking for a holiday romance ( honestly ), but those Mediterranean types are so sensitive to peoples needs, they are so ... well ... sweet, I did fall a bit in love with a beautiful boy...







Ahhhh, we met in Spain actually I was just there for the day, short, but long enough to fall in love. He gave me so much love and attention I thought we would be together forever, but then, oh drat, I noticed something ...



Story of my life, I was one girl ( or lion ) too late, but I ain't letting him go that easy. That's Portuguese Love.

Hooray Hooray It's A Holi Holiday

Hi, I'm off, after all that hard work what with the exhibition and all, I'm leaving on a jet plane and I will be back in a weeks time. Here is a nice collection of cats to keep you amused while I'm gone, love and peace, Sophie xxx

Cavatina from The Deerhunter

This is Nina playing some wonderful classical guitar at the exhibition.

The Exhibition 2010

The door to the exhibition and the famous 'visitors book'





A watercolour and acrylic called " Shhhh"


Ian playing his guitar at the gallery

The Youth of Today have a lot to say!

Children and babies are gifts and it is true, it is something I believe. They are great healers, come into the world full of love and wanting to please and just want to play and have fun in life. These are among the reasons why it was quite important to me that young people and children got a chance to see our exhibition and I was keen to see what their reaction to it was.

The group of school children who came last Tuesday initially broke the ice by asking me how Vincent died ( they were admiring our showpiece of Van Gogh in the Yellow Room ) to which I told them the truth that he shot himself, we talked for a while about Vincent, his anxiety and mental health troubles, which the young people showed that they understood and were sympathetic about, in fact there were terms that I used that I knew I did not have to explain or go any further as they had understood, and maybe experienced some of those things themselves.

Their teacher had instructed them to choose a piece of art work that they most liked to which many of the students replied that they had got two, or even four!

The children loved it and were intrigued about how I made the glass, which I found difficult to explain as it is a very involved process, but when they all came along, last Tuesday, they really did appreciate the exhibition and they left after about an hour giving me instructions to carry on and never give up!

I am very pleased that there have been a number of young people come to the exhibition and many of them said that they enjoyed it, the comments book is very complimentary and one famous artist (an older type) left a comment today saying that he was impressed with the talent on display! And he hoped people would enjoy it as much as he had! Well that is a result!

Today we had our youngest visitor to the gallery, a baby girl, well a toddler in her pram, she couldn't see the pictures as they were too high up from the vantage of her pram, but when the pram turned around and faced the ceramic green men plaques, the youngster shrieked with delight and shouted "man" "man" "man", then she noticed the apes and her grandma told her that they were apes and she continues to shout out "man" "man" "man", which was very funny. As she approached me in her pram she looked at me and said "Mummy" three times, that shocked and delighted me! Her grandma turned her chair to face the exhibition and asked her which was her favorite piece, she took it in, thought about it, and then as clear as anything said 'guitar'. This little girl totally made my day, bless her!

Sadly tomorrow will be the last day, but we are making plans to return for another show particularly as someone called 'Tinky Winky' from 'Telly tubby land' made a comment in our book which read 'again again again'. We can't let the kids down now can we?

Arial picture of the students at Millbank (10.11.10)

Disability and resulting human compensation for it.

The exhibition is now in its third week and we were wondering whether two weeks would have been enough and is it dead on its feet now. I thought so, but the afternoon at the exhibition proved me so wrong. There was a steady stream of visitors all afternoon and someone had made their way from Maidstone to come to it especially (and its a hidden away venue - not easy to find) so that was particularly heartening, and we spent a good three quatres of an hour talking too which was very nice. The guest from Maidstone was a special treat for myself as curator and for the exhibition itself. If she is reading this blog, I must encourage her to go for it, do an exhibition with the photography for example, it is so worthwhile and can lead on to other things.

There was also a very nice and posh middle class and middle aged lady who I got talking to at the exhibition. She told me that in life there are some things that should be kept to yourself unless you really trusted someone. My answer ( and I presumed she meant our openness regarding our mental health capacity) was that sometimes someone had to make the first move and also as well as that, the particular experiences that we ( the exhibitors ) have had, has been so life changing and significant that it rendered us unable to keep it to our self.

Then it was how sorry she was for us incapables, or words to that effect, to which I bought her attention to the fact that anyone with any disability or finds themselves compromised in some faculty usually not only learns to live with it, but also compensates for it. I gave the example of how blind people might have enhanced hearing facilities or any other such combination to which she found herself agreeing.

So for us, what is our compensation, this nice lady said she thought that we must have 'psychic' abilities as compensation. Now I don't strictly disagree, its just that I think everyone has psychic abilities and it is nothing special, what I said to her was that our compensation lies in our healing abilities, our art, our ability to entertain etc.

This again goes back to our show piece Vincent, his true life story seems to be covered up somewhat by those who do not want to hear the facts about his mental illnesses and his incarceration in mental hospitals.

Perhaps they just want us to not have any talents, because we can't do a regular nine to five, we have to be patronised, written off, medicated to the land of nod, isolated and forgotten about. Of course our brothers and sisters won't allow this to happen and neither will many of us, but it can be extraordinarily difficult at times, sadly many do give up and mortality rates for mental health service users can be higher than the general population. Although it is not always the case, but I have had that many friends die by taking their own lives, and die from general ill health and neglect, it does sadly ring true.

johnny cash - there ain't no grave - The Johnny Cash Project Part 1

A brilliant song and fantastic innovative computer graphics.

Students smash Tory HQ

The students have rightly had enough of being given no hope and no future by the Torydem Government. These students are our future, they are brave and learning some street fighting skills, something that is necessary and that we the older generation were unable to teach them. May they be blessed, guided and protected always.

More news from the exhibition.

It was a very cold and rainy day today, so we didn't expect many people to turn up to look at the exhibition. I really hoped that someone would come in, and then, low and behold, a couple ... typical of this area, one from Strood, one from the Delce and just the sort of people you'd expect from these areas; rough, unkempt, unhealthy looking, the 'all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth' types, the typical people from round this way and by God I love 'em.

They were wonderfully appreciative of all of the exhibits on display, asking questions about them, laughing, pondering the meaning of some of the work. The woman was one after my own heart as her favorite work at the exhibition was Chris Barchard's 'War', which is also my favorite, we discussed the title of the work and looked on it admirably, both of us commenting on how deep the picture is. Oh! how I love these rough types, they must have spent about forty minutes in the Gallery, going back and forth, they genuinely enjoyed it.

That's all I ever wanted, to reach the masses like this, to make art accessible, enjoyable and for everyone! The icing on the cake were the comments they made in the book, the woman said how interesting everything was and the rough and ready young man said that he really enjoyed it and it was something to give people HOPE ( he wrote that in capitals ). They said they would return for the classical Indian music tomorrow, the sitar and tabla rendition and I really hope they do return.

There have been a few wealthy looking types, people who came in at the start, they might have been interested in the work, but they were as stiff as boards and, as is common among these people, they looked like they are looking for a money spinner, who knows some might come back for purchasing, and I secretly would love to be supported in my art work by a rich benefactor, but yes, well, dream on ...

On the whole though the exhibition is starting to take off, we have a group of teenage schoolers coming in tomorrow first thing, again something that I am so glad is happening, to reach the youth with our work is a dream come true, although of course they might hate the stuff ... but I doubt it, anyway I am really looking forward to watching their reactions ( if any ) to our work. We also will be having a group of local Asian women visiting the exhibition, so its all been good so far.

Music makes pictures that often tell stories

Just thought I would post up some more pictures from the Exhibition and say how wonderful the music is and has been already. We have had a few people ask if the musicians have CD's available, so, they ought get on the case as there are a few buyers out there who like your music very much.

picture By David Jones

Personally I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the gallery, particularly when I see and get to chat with new and old friends, some I haven't seen for a long while, in one case I had a good long chat with an old friend who I hadn't seen for ten years, and I learned so much about him as we talked at the gallery.

Yesterday, my enthusiasm with the music went through the roof as we had a sitarist and tabla playing, it was moving to say the least and I am so glad they are coming back to play another session on Tuesday.

Most of all I am enjoying the interest people are showing in the art work, this is something that gives me the greatest joy of all because it is what I wanted when I was making and producing the work; to share emotions and feelings. That people feel something when looking at my or any of the others work is really what its all about. It is a bonus if anyone feels they wish to purchase any of the pictures, ceramics or glass work, but I would say that they ought buy now as the prices are low, they would have an investment because the work will be worth a fortune when we're dead! So roll up, roll up! (I am joking btw).


'Holy face' by me


The things we make are not only objects and pictures by which we express ourselves, we also learn about the subject through the painting, ceramic or piece of glass work. So if you paint or draw flowers or fruit, you learn through that painting more about their nature. In the finished product you pass what you learned and how they made you feel.

Much of my work is of a philosophical nature it is and has been a way that I can learn more and express my feelings. It is well known and neither do I make a secret of the fact that I have on a number of occasions done visual and three D representations of the devil, but I have also done many flowers, trees, birds and biblical icons such as Moses, Adam and Eve, Jesus, John the Baptist and a few Mary's. I twice attempted a clay representation of Calvary, and there is a story and a half about one of those attempts, which I never will forget. It made me wonder whether in order to hand depict Calvary, the artist really has to be pure and clean in heart and maybe at that time I wasn't, but well who knows, maybe one day I will be!

Glass boat from china

Charity, Creativity and Mental Health

Sunset with boxes by Chris Barchard


Something that I didn't expect from the Exhibition was the amount of interest people would have in the charity, 'the National Perceptions Forum', a mental health charity sponsoring the event.

A few years ago we produced a DVD about ourselves, our history, how we formed, who we are and what we are about. We still had quite a few in the office cupboard so I took some to display at the exhibition, they went like hot cakes on the opening night and everyday since then, so too has our magazine 'Perceptions'. So today the office administrator came down from London to replenish our stocks.

It rings true for so many people that mental health problems and emotional instability go together with creativity, real creativity that is. Not learning a few tricks to go on huge canvases to make a financial killing, no, our work, the work shown on the exhibition by the six is stuff that comes from our hearts. We put everything from ourselves into it and we are not ashamed to do this, we don't hold back mainly because we have a need to express our wrought emotions somehow.

Suffering with emotional problems can mean for many of us that we have consequential social and relationship problems. Statistically I read somewhere that people with a diagnosis of a serious mental health problem are less likely to be able to manage long term relationships and among the people I know it does see to be the case.

Van Gogh really is a case in point and our lovely showpiece 'Vincent in the Yellow Room' illustrates this beautifully. Vincent did his best work in a mental institution and he never sold one piece of his work in his lifetime preferring instead to hang on to them maybe? His life was plagued by inappropriate relationships and emotional instability but the work he produced was exquisite. I have been compared to Van Gogh's story by my close friends and family on a few occasions something that I find both alarming and complimentary.

The unexpected upshot of this exhibition is an understanding of what it means to have mental health problems, the exhibition shows what we *can* do and hopefully people can see the love that is in our hearts. Something that we may not be able to show to people in any other way other than with clay, canvas and other artistic mediums.




Vincent in the Yellow Room by Maureen Oliver

Collaboration and the Art Exhibition's opening night

Being part of setting up, organising, and running an exhibition has been quite an experience with many unexpected and wonderful things happening.

One of the most comforting and heartening things has been the amount of interest the exhibition has provoked and the number of people who have been willing and abundantly able to help with the organising of it and thus ensuring its smooth running and success so far.

It has been no mean feat either, getting together work from six artists, the framing of the works (huge thanks goes to my Mum for that as well as the many other things she helped with) organising for people to travel across the country to help with the installation, filming it to produce a DVD (eventually) and live music performances.

The music played live (classical) has proved enormously popular, some very wise artists commented on how having music at such an exhibition like ours enabled those attending to feel free to talk about the exhibits with the music providing a pleasant cover for peoples initial thoughts (without it, thoughts might be embarrassingly amplified!)

It has brought us all closer together, parts of my family and some very amazing friends.

The opening night on Friday 30th October set the tone, and I started to realise how good what we were doing actually was. We developed a mutual appreciation society where each of us has some brilliant and remarkable skills that we all verbally appreciated and we made a collaborative effort. I believe a collaborative art and music exhibition is preferable to a solo show (the pressure of that must be unbearable) but a solo show is one that is more highly regarded in the art world and one that is aspired to by the majority of artists.

Rather than being competitive with one another as artists, it is just brilliant to love and appreciate each and every one of us, as far as I am concerned we are great and on the opening night we were able to talk about our work with other artists and interested people. We all really enjoyed it, its the stuff dreams are made of.

Ceramic wall plaques @ the Exhibition

This one is called 'bird face' some people think s/he looks more like a fox ...

I made about twenty ceramic wall plaques and am displaying seventeen of them, twelve of them are human faces, ( of which a couple are green men ). Three apes and one hanging ceramic heart which has glass inlay. They look good together and make a nice set, we used fish wire to hang them up ( which is almost invisible ) so they look just like floating faces against a wall.

It is interesting watching people as they look at the ceramic faces, and I love looking at them all as a group, their expressions are funny, sad, happy, one even looks positively angry in a certain light!

The funniest thing about the ceramic faces is that they seem to be looking right back at you!

Jimmy's Guitar at the Exhibition

Here is a guitar I made out of glass for my nephew Jimmy and it is being shown along with other pieces of glass work at the Nucleus Arts Center Exhibition. One piece of glass work has been sold and the buyer got a bargain. It is a glass boat from China but made of glass. There is a great deal of work that goes in to making these pieces, Jimmy's guitar shown below took at least four months to do. But it is a worthwhile result.

Exhibition Showpiece - Vincent in the Yellow House

Here is the showpiece to the 'Art of Recovery' Exhibition at the Nucleus Arts Center. It is by Maureen Oliver and is a beautiful and sad picture of Vincent. It is brilliant.

Picture at The Exhibition

Here is one of my favorite pictures currently being shown at the Art Exhibition I am busy organising called 'Art of Recovery' at the Nucleus Arts Center.

It is entitled 'War' and is by Chris Barchard.

The reason why I love this picture so much is because it speaks volumes about the injustice of War. The form at the top right hand corner is rounded and to me looks like it has a heart in its center and is shedding a tear as the aggressive and angular forms making pointed, incessant scheming and vicious attack. It reminds me of Picasso's Guernica.