The Chicken and the Egg

The Coffee Cup

My research into Cobalt mining in the DRC inspired me to write a poem that could be interpreted as a typical family situation in the Congo.

Corruption is rife, extreme poverty drives parents to sending their children to work in the mines, or worse still sell them to traffickers. Trafficking also accounts for missing children that are kidnapped to work in the mines or be trafficked throughout Africa and onto Europe or other countries. People in the Congo are treated as disposable commodities, there are many deaths in the Artisan mines, either directly or secondary. Orphaned children then have to work to survive.

This story sounds unrealistic, but sadly these are common events in the DRC, in particular the Artisan Mining districts.

My daughter recorded the poem, which was then added to the movie showing the conditions in the mining area. The movie is to be played in conjunction with viewing the two artworks.

Sound Credit & Bibliography

The IT skills sessions were hampered by the college provided PC’s not working. The first week was a virtual write off, the 2nd week had a lot of catching up to do.

We briefly covered Photoshop, Illustrator, Glitche, and video feedback.

Video Feedback

Glitche

Illustrator

Photoshop : Unfortunately the IT issues prevented any meaningful work being completed

Task : Take pictures of the hand ‘close up’ and draw in perspective

I enjoyed the mathematical challenge of keeping the perspective. I made perspective lines on the photo to use as guidelines for the drawing.

I then created the same guidelines in faint pencil on the paper in the same proportion to the photo guidelines.

Once the basic shape of the hand had been drawn I could then rub out the guidelines to finish the drawing.

A morning spent sketching the model followed by an afternoon painting.

Any style of painting could be chosen.

I was unhappy with the final outcome of the Starting Points project and decided to redo the artwork..

The original artwork was inspired by the Peter Kennard ‘World of Markets (1997-2024) project. For me the bank of faces represented the untold misery of victims of humanitarian injustice at the hands of their persecutors. In the secret world of abuse there is nobody to hear the story of the victims.

In the initial version of the artwork the poem was too small to read and looked unprofessional being ‘stuck onto’ the canvas. The images were not directly related to domestic abuse and would be better placed in a different piece of work. I reworked the piece in 2025.

The inspiration for the aesthetics of the words originated from various sources. For example, the use of different fonts and text sizes was the result of a visit to the Imperial War Museum. A image depicting words of all sizes and fonts drew me to read the text. It was visually pleasing and made the artwork interesting despite the horrific message it was portraying.

To engage the viewer in my artwork it needed to be inviting but also powerful, engaging and informative to deliver the sensitive message. I used the method from the IWM combined with a considered choice of colours. Inspiration came from artists such as Kandinsky, Jenny Holzer and Bob and Roberta Smith. Kandinsky’s colour theory considers emotion and colour being connected. He proposed that blue was cool and suggests purity. Colour theorists and Interior Designers are also inspired by the emotional response to colour, such as blue in bedrooms to create calm and tranquillity. In my poem the line ‘momentary calm’ is blue but with a slight outline of red indicating that there is some sort of temporary tranquillity, but it is also tinged with fear. Red is used to depict anger and aggression and white to move to a different time frame.  Throughout the poem in this reworked version there are colour coded emotions that not only lead the viewer into the mindset of the victim but offer a stimulating visual effect.

Writing poetry and painting have been instrumental in my recovery from an abusive marriage. One of my goals is to work with victims in a support role providing art therapy. Art was my saviour, a gift that I would like to share with others. I would also like my artwork to create awareness of all forms of humanitarian injustice to help others become more conscious and knowledgeable of the complicated issues behind this complex subject.

The remake of I Am Nothing

Sample sketchbook pages