In 2016 I heard that Brecon was holding a women’s festival. Having been involved in a number of events for International Women’s Day I contacted them to see if I could paint for it. I was too late but the organisers kindly included me in the programme for 2017.

I spent a day in Brecon speaking to people about it, trying to find a suitable wall, and permission to paint it. I came away with a couple of options and followed it up with National Parks, whom I didn’t realise have so much control over what the town looks like.

Speaking to business owners, the Town Clerk and members of the Chamber of Trade, it was clear that there is a lot of concern about derelict buildings and empty shops. My final choice was to paint a boarded up building on the High Street.

As soon as I started putting on the base coat emulsion people started thanking me for improving the appearance of the shop. PLAN Brecon posted some images of my work in progress on Facebook, sparking a discussion which I followed with fascination. One of the first comments ‘Don’t need this type of art it sends out the wrong signals we not in new York’ initially made me chuckle, but on reflection I think this insight was actually quite astute.

I learned my art-form by painting on legal walls with friends. In Hip-Hop culture, we have an ‘each one teach one’ ethos. Graffiti is a community-led form of alternative education which grew from the political situation in 1960’s New York. Extremely poor areas of the city had been left isolated and deprived, and young people in those areas instigated what has been referred to as one of the most important art movements in recent years. The authorities, rather than addressing the social problems at the time, blamed graffiti – a visible, easily identified target. The media portrayal from this time is what has shaped our understanding of the art-form right up to this day.

When I was growing up, Brecon was a thriving town, and like many it has suffered from online shopping, large retail outlets and chain shops sucking money away from independent ‘High Street’ businesses. I’m pleased to say that my mural has sparked some positive exchanges online, which I hope will lead to real projects and more people working together.

Change must come from grassroots level, and can only happen if people are able to work together, putting aside their differences. Street art is not permanent – that’s the point – it’s part of an evolving landscape. A landscape which now needs to adapt quickly to thrive. The internet has brought shopping into all of our homes, and we may need to re-think what a Town Centre could become, before it becomes isolated and deprived – like parts of 1960’s New York.

Further reading: Taking The Train – How Graffiti Art became an urban crisis in New York City, by Joe Austin.

Read the discussion on PLAN Brecon’s facebook page here.

Yes I do. And it keeps me sane – a walk in the woods or a cycle along the river to start or end the day, makes sure I don’t get ‘growly’.

I spent a day last week in the woods, in the company of other creative folk, doing what we do (photographing, filming, painting, posing, creating) and just being in each others company, in nature. I came away inspired, and thrilled – feeling the magic with other creative people somehow made it even more special. It came up in conversation at the end of the day though, that nature words have been removed from the dictionary – including ACORN. What. The. Fuck? Acorn? really? I asked my good friend google, and it’s not the full dictionary, but the Oxford Junior Dictionary – the one for little kids, who will be picking up an acorn and saying to the grown ups ‘what’s this?’. If these words are taken out of the junior dictionary now, who’s to say they won’t be taken out of the hefty grown up’s dictionary in the future?

Apparently the decision is taken by how often words are used – but I believe that the ‘use’ is from some kinda google algorithm, which I assume will be online or print use. It’s these kind of words which are used in conversation, not necessarily in written language, which will be lost over time. This makes me sad, and angry, and confused, and disappointed and tired.

I’m working on some artwork about it, but in the meantime here’s a piece I wrote with my lovely husband Owen Thomas, about nature. It’s in print form in my colouring book – I have couple left here if you fancy one to pass on to the little folk…

 

Nature defines us. What we are. Who we are

 

We live it.

We eat it.

We breathe it.

 

Without nature, we are nothing.

 

Being creative is nature’s way of working itself through us, helping to put our thoughts and dreams into the world. It is the same silent energy that moves along the stem and into the colour of petals.

Music, art, poetry and dance are all essential elements of a hip-hop culture in a modern world.

Because, yes; we live in a modern world, but we are not so far removed from our ancestors. Why is it that we enjoy getting ‘back to nature’? Our love of simple things; hanging out in the park, camping, walking through the woods with friends? It reminds us of what we are, where we came from, and, more importantly, it re-energises us, reinvigorates the soul. We drink in our surroundings and connect with living things. We close our eyes and remember that we are but part of a bigger picture.

Listen to the birds of the air, putting their own creativity into the world, in the same way that we do when we paint, we rap, we dance or make music. They are expressing their own true and instinctive selves. Nature is how we do this. Our connection with nature is our key link to our innermost self.

Embrace it, live it, enjoy what it offers, but remember that one day, at the end of it all, when the last grain of sand drops away from what made us, us, we, every one of us, will go back, back to nature.

And our essence, what made us who we were, what made us unique as individuals, will run like the colours on a palette board, back into the nature that created us, that sustained us, that united us.

We owe nature all, and must use our talents in whatever form they manifest to show our respect.

I will be donating four prints to this fundraiser for the important work being done by The Refugee Women’s Centre in Grande-Synthe camp de la Linière, France. 50% from all purchases of prints and cards via my online shop today (17th October) will also go towards the project:

“The Refugee Women’s Centre is a safe space for the women of the camp to come with their children for support, relaxation and to create relationships with the other women in the camp as well as the volunteers. Many of them have been there for several months after traumatic departures from their countries and long and dangerous journeys across Europe.

Whether pregnant women, single mothers, young or old families, the 180 women of the camp suffer similar threats and pressures from the grey, desperate and male-dominated environment around them. In the Womens Centre we try to sooth the difficulties of daily life and provide an alternative to the seclusion of remaining in the shelters. We have a kitchen for the women to cook in, a free shop for the distribution of women’s and children’s hygiene products and a clothes and shoes distribution.”

Facebook event page here.

 

 

 

Latifah Nankivell passed away at the end of 2012. My beautiful mother died peacefully, in control of her care, with dignity and love. The grief that hit me, although expected, hit me hard. I’ve since learned that this may be linked with my mother being unable to grieve fully for her own mother. It may simply be that losing your mother is monumental – we are born from our mother’s flesh. When she passed, I could feel an endless line of women – her mother, her mother’s mother, her mother and all the mothers who are my female ancestors. I moved up a notch in the line, which has started reaching into the future with my own twin daughters Brooke and Sofie.

‘Time Heals’ is a series of four pieces about wading through the grieving process. I feel like I’ve come through the worst of the fog that is grief. I feel lighter, like Spring after a hard Winter. The times of the clock hands represent the time of my mother’s death, the time of my own birth and the births of my two daughters. Time shifts and changes, slows down, speeds up and stands still. It is momentous and miniscule, and it makes sense.

Latifah, may you rest in Peace, I thank you for the Love you gave and continue to give me. Sofie and Brooke give us Hope for the future and Faith that the cycle and circle of life and death continue as they should.

And if you wish to put a battery in the clock mechanism – it will begin to tick, tock, marking the passing of time once again.

‘Time Heals’ will be shown as part of the ‘Vinyl Resting Place’ exhibition in Monty’s Bar & Lounge, 149 Brick Lane, E1 6SB, London for three weeks from Friday September 16th. Organised by The Family Collective, event page here.

I love it when communities come together to make change. It’s not difficult once you get a few people together with a common cause –  living alongside one another I think it’s really important that we can work together too, looking after our own local area and instilling a sense of pride and belonging.

I came across the ‘Make Devon Road Beautiful‘ facebook page via a friend, and painted a piece on a garage there last week. It wasn’t a great place to paint because of all the traffic ROARING up and down the road where I was working, but this illustrates why the community has come together in the first place. The aim of this project is to calm traffic by creating a colourful environment, signalling to drivers that they are entering a residential space. Although I’m not from the area it feels good to have contributed in my own small way, to the change which residents of this area are seeking. Keep up the good work folks!