"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).

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).

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?

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.

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.

CathArtic Art and room to show it

There is good news; at last, it is something I have wanted to do for a long time, I have finally attracted some funding to put on an art exhibition by six or possibly seven artists who have suffered some form of severe mental illness and who use art as a way of expressing the emotional pain, and can now show off their work to everyone, in Chatham.

The exhibition will most likely be called 'The Art of Recovery' unless I can think of a better title. It will have as a common thread; the classics, i.e work that is influenced by classical masters or has a classic 'feel' to it. The majority of the work I do and have done has been while listening to some lovely classical music, if you get into the music, this can help to bring out the emotions. No - one would necessarily know of my underlying influences or the accompanying music I listen to by looking at my work.

There will also be live performances by a classical guitarist; Nina Rideout. She has performed at the National Gallery in London to an art exhibition, so it is great honour for us to have her perform at our exhibition in Chatham.

There will be a painting at the Exhibition by a famous artist called Maureen Oliver, her work is really very good. The piece she is willing to lend us for the exhibition is a painting she has done in oil of Vincent Van Gogh painting his starry night from what looks like a mental hospital (in his life he did many of his works from such places), and in an open window looking in on him there are many people huddled together in groups and looking on in a judgemental and disapproving manner, but Vincent carries on with his work despite this and despite the bandage around his head and over his ear. It is a most inspiring painting, and will hopefully be the piece that sets the tone for the rest of the works.

As well as Maureen Oliver, there will be other artists, John Excell, Chris Barchard, Ian Melville and hopefully something from Adam Halpern.

Adam is my partner in crime in the pottery group. We both love pottery, positively potty about it. When we work with clay, forms start to take hold themselves, the shapes make suggestions to us and we work with the clay rather than trying to force it into something that we want, or what we want it to end up being. Both myself and Adam have the same approach to clay modeling, the pieces we make have a life of their own to us. We also have a good laugh in each others company in the group, and by gum I am really going to miss it when the group stops which is likely to be in the next couple of weeks.

The venue of the exhibition will be the Nucleus Ats Centre, just off the High Street Chatham (past in shops and on the same side) It will start with an opening night and private view ( refreshments included ) on Thursday 29th October and run for three weeks until the 18th November.

I will put some of my work up on here, my blog, but there is just so much to do, most of the photographs of my work will need to be re-done as they are poor quality pictures. Then the paintings will probably have to be re - framed so that they can be in uniform and orderly frames which will look much better on exhibition, rather than the hodge podge style frames they are in now. Oh me oh my so much work to do.




Bacchaus(inspired by a Reubens painting)