"Icons" by Mark Fuller at the Nucleus Gallery, Chatham

Mark Fuller's exhibition of his work at Chatham’s Nucleus Art Centre Gallery, the show was on until the 22^nd December 2011. However, to call it an exhibition is an understatement, in the traditional sense of the word. It was more than an exhibition although still that, it was an experience, a chance to step into a world of make believe, to leave behind the mundane and be filled with and moved by sheer joy and fantasy.

The exhibition called “Icons”, had the initial appearance of the work of Andy Warhol and his Icons. Mark Fuller’s ‘Icons’ are slick, compelling, up to date and of this generation. I would be so bold as to say that it is even better than Warhol as the experimental stuff that arguably rendered meaning superfluous in Warhol, such as the famous Campbell’s soup for example has not been included or anything like that, and so Mark Fullers Icons are refined, they take you away from reality for a while, you can escape into the lives of people who look good, and have a purpose, or maybe not so much a purpose, but they are resolute, purposeful and driven people, how wonderful it is to escape and feel what it is to be them for a while, feel what they mean to you, and remember too what they have meant to you in the past .

Mark is a full time civil servant by trade, he has one grown up daughter who studied art at college and his partner is expecting a baby in March. His spectacular work (all from this year) is done from a makeshift studio in his home. He is from and currently lives in Medway.

This evocative exhibition begins with icons of fast cars like Ferraris, and porches, there are also camper vans; how good it must feel to drive a fast car and escape life in a camper van …

Then you come to the most powerful iconic image of our generation, that of Vincent and Jules from the film Pulp Fiction, they each carry a piece, they are uncompromising in their stance and the impression is that no-one messes with them. It s so evocative; isn’t that how we would all like to be in real life? To escape from who we are, with our inadequacies and idiosyncrasies, its so good to imagine ourselves to be just like them for a while, even for a split second!

It really is a thrilling image; it sets the tone for what is to come, Michael Caine, James Bond and others that really “kick ass”. The exhibition tells half the story, it’s told in a masterfully slick way; the icons are all black and white, bold and sharp. Bright colours are added to background and/or to props, they set and frame the icons. We then are the subject of the other half of the story, how the icons affect us and allow us to escape, we are moved and can shake up the world, just as they (the icons) do and have done. I guess for me one of the highlights was Jimi Hendrix, he is so cool and seeing him revered and encapsulated as an Icon is a glorious experience!

Of course, all the fast cars, guns and ammo really mean nothing without a woman or a girl around, and there you see them, great iconic feminine beauties; Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. Classy and gorgeous, their presence rounds off the exhibition and makes it complete. Complete in the excitement of a man’s world, exciting and now gentle too.

Well done to Mark Fuller on an exemplary exhibition, I wish him all the best and hope that he will go far.

Chatham Works Exhibition - Nick Evans

Nick Evans

This wonderful exhibition is currently showing at the Nucleus Arts Centre Gallery in Chatham (272 High Street) until the 17^th November.

Chatham landmarks are clearly depicted with colour and drama. Chatham and its icons are boldly represented with fond familiarity and exuberant colours in their surround.

The artists selects just a few significant places, ones with presence and maybe their beauty somewhat hidden, such as the Brook Theatre.

Is this really our home town? Yes it is; not only the landmarks, but also the atmosphere and its not gloomy either, rather it’s exciting and dramatic.

Of course Chatham is not known as a beauty spot or for its artistic attributes, but at this exhibition, artist Nick Evans captures from his Chatham studio what we know and love about the town, so impressive are the outer representations, we can feel its familiarity and admire them too.

Chatham is not without its victims of life, it’s a hard town with a history of hardship, such that it was an inspiration for many of Dickens novels. Artist Nick Evans demonstrates an understanding and appreciation of this essence. In one corner of the Gallery; as you travel around the paintings of our beloved town there are two people (opposite the painting of flowers) a man and a woman in separate paintings, they are naked. Their vulnerability for all to see, these are our Chatham people, a boy and a girl.

The two pictures bring to a close our journey through Chatham and there follows in the same style, paintings of beautiful places in Cornwall perhaps representing our dreams of escape.

It’s a wonderful and moving exhibition, one that tells a story (or three).

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Resistance

Here is a picture of Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans and Chrisoph Probst, who were part of a very brave group of young people who defied and resisted the Nazi's under Hitler in Germany during his reign. Here is their story:-

Although this group of friends were eventually known for their political affairs, they were initially drawn together by a shared love of art, music, literature, philosophy and theology. Hiking in the mountains, skiing and swimming were also of importance. They often attended concerts, plays and lectures together.

In the summer of 1942, the friends began to question and resist the principals and policies of the Nazi regime. The group decided to adopt the strategy of passive resistance that was being used by students fighting against racial discrimination in the United States. This included publishing leaflets calling for the restoration of democracy and social justice.

The group co-authored six anti-Nazi Third Reich political resistance leaflets. Calling themselves the White Rose, they instructed Germans to passively resist the Nazis.

In January 1943, using a hand-operated duplicating machine, the group is thought to have produced between 6,000 and 9,000 copies of their fifth leaflet, "Appeal to all Germans!", which was distributed via courier runs to many cities (where they were mailed). Copies appeared in Stuttgart, Cologne, Vienna, Freiburg, Chemnitz, Hamburg and Berlin. Composed by Hans Scholl with improvements by Huber, the leaflet warned that Hitler was leading Germany into the abyss; with the gathering might of the Allies, defeat was now certain. The reader was urged to "Support the resistance movement!" in the struggle for "Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and protection of the individual citizen from the arbitrary action of criminal dictator-states". These were the principles that would form "the foundations of the new Europe".

On February 18, 1943, the Scholl's brought a suitcase full of leaflets to the university. They hurriedly dropped stacks of copies in the empty corridors for students to find when they flooded out of lecture rooms. Leaving before the class break, the Scholl's noticed that some copies remained in the suitcase and decided it would be a pity not to distribute them. They returned to the atrium and climbed the staircase to the top floor, and Sophie flung the last remaining leaflets into the air.

Hans said this later at their trial in the National Socialist's 'People's Court' :- "Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just do not dare express themselves as we did."

On February 22, 1943, Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans and their friend Christoph Probst were found guilty of treason and condemned to death. They were all beheaded by executioner Johann Reichhart in Munich's Stadelheim Prison only a few hours later at 17:00.

Prison officials emphasized the courage with which Sophie walked to her execution. Her last words were "Die Sonne scheint noch"—"The sun still shines."

Five go to Pepe's

An acquaintance of mine recently opened a very nice cafe near me; and on finding out I am an artist ( yes, its true, I am), she asked for some of my paintings to display. Great! She also said that she would only charge commission once I get famous! Love Pepe! What a star!

Here are the five framed pieces of my work, the photos are sub standard, I know, but these were taken in a hurry just before I took them over to Pepe.

Then there is another 'Art of Recovery' exhibition, installation and opening night this coming Friday - gulps! Not much pressure - too much pressure more like! Still I am sure it'll all be alright on the night ( hopefully).

Art and Economic Regeneration

There is a common sense notion and indeed something that is enforced in everyday life which is that work ought to be separated from culture and art. Something that a recent comment here reiterated, it went something like this:- if you like to be creative and do creative stuff, then do it in your own time.

It is actually a well known and proven fact ( and I do have references for this) - although kept secret at the same time, that the main ingredient in economic regeneration is art and art exhibitions.

So I am doing more than being responsible for myself in my own life by pursuing art ( even though it is a massive financial strain and burden), I am taking responsibility for everyone, I am doing it for the love of humanity and for the sake of our regeneration.

Maybe one day I will go into more detail about that and what inspired me to embark on art and craft in the first place, the visions, theories and concepts that lies behind it, and also what has kept and keeps me going. Thus far of course.

Marxism 2011 part one

As with most things in life there is the good, the bad and the ugly and so it is true too of the SWP's annual event 'Marxism'.

It's like our Christmas, we see old friends and comrades and chat to one another like we've never been apart, we meet new people, get fresh ideas, laugh, cry and dance ( usually at the end in the after party). This year's Marxism was held for the first time in about twenty or so years in a different venue and due to the disability I have ( I get disorientated in new places quickly and it's bad, worse in my case than for most people I reckon) I was worried. A local friend and comrade offered to help with the practicalities as much as he could, something I was grateful for; and it did work for a time while I was up there, but not all the time.

Another problem I have is that sitting for long periods of time in meetings causes me quite a bit of discomfort, so this year I had that to contend with too.

I did meet up with some old friends and familiar faces and had a couple of great quality conversations, although the chats seemed to come around to the subject of art, but that was great as art is one of my favourite subjects anyway. I had a great convo about mental health with a very nice and understanding young man who was also a fellow sufferer.

The venue was split over two sites, Friends meeting house and a nearby university. I was fine at Friends meeting house as I already new it, but there weren't many people around to talk to in between meetings and there were no debates, or few, but none that I was able to participate in anyway.

The university to me was a nightmare, which I thought it would be, I could not make head nor tail of where I was going, it was all very strange and I felt very lost there, I saw one person I knew; a man from my Welsh days, he was pushing a pram around with his young son in, and was as equally confused as I was as to what was happening and where everything and everybody was.

Eventually I found the canteen and recognised a few faces although no-one looking particularly friendly, again it was boring as there were no interesting debates, plus the food was appalling and expensive, when a canteen hand cleared my table and asked if the food was alright, I left that question unanswered. I heard of one poor comrade who actually got food poisoning, poor thing.

So I thought I would give up trying to fathom the university and waited for my friend to arrive from Kent, but he was severely delayed, so I sat in the rose garden in front of Friends meeting house. There were comrades milling around, some I knew and recognised and some I didn't, but I felt isolated and excluded, probably on account of the relegated membership I endure which means I am not attached to any branch. It felt even more acute as I had been friends with a local Kent comrade for a while up until a few months ago when ... ( well it's a fairly long story that I won't go into), but I saw her on the train going up and she walked past me and then hurried on ahead.

So, do you get the picture? Marxism changed this year. I went up for only two days, the Saturday and Sunday, and only went to one meeting on the Sunday before returning home feeling all sorts of things, but one feeling I had that Sunday night in my flat was that today's SWP sadly felt no longer like a home.

And its something I intend to explore in this blog over the coming weeks.

Holiday Art

I did four pictures while on holiday, one of them is unfinished still, and another was a drawing that I had done earlier this year and happened to be still in my pad waiting for some paint. The other two are below. One is of the Algarve coastline, the other is of a Moorish castle in a place called Silvis.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

Naked Woman, Wild and Free

This watercolour has been transferred and made into a tattoo on a friend of mine, his name is Rob.

She appears to be wild and free, just like we'd all like to be.