Badaude

One way to get past the paywall...

Interview with me in The Times yesterday.

 

(the great photo is by Jon Enoch)

 

At the Wellcome - 5

Stories:

as I've been working in situ at the Wellcome Collection, people feel free to come up and talk to me.

So far I've heard...

lots of questions about what kinds of pens I'm using...

many confessions about deaths experienced: someone who needed to express her anger about the gaps in her sister-in-law's care... 

theories: an (stunningly beautiful) young Egyptian Moslem who thinks about plans for her own death frequently as she has witnessed 'so many bad deaths' and a middle-aged man who is angry with Dylan Thomas's angry wish to 'not go gentle into that goodnight' and would like more cultural acceptance of 'ebbing away'...

and reactions from medics - who are usually very positive about what I'm doing, saying that it reflects their own experiences. This means a lot to me. Oh, and... 

one question about whether I get enough work and whether I can make a living from what I do (!). This was so unexpected I somehow felt obliged to answer it.

Plus I met the lovely Indigo Alison who stopped by for a coffee while I was working.

My work will be at the Wellcome Collection until 20th March.

Photos All rights reserved by Wellcome Collection

I'm BMJ Picture of the Week!

(From the British Medical Journal)

 

At the Wellcome - 4

Putting in...

 

details...

 

textures...

 

'mark-making'...

 

Today is my last day at the Wellcome Collection drawing live.

 

At the Wellcome - 3

It's growing...

 

...which was one of the ideas I wanted to put in the drawing. At Sobell I noticed...

 

...how the outdoors continued indoors into floral curtains, flower arrangements, wood or laminate flooring and furniture just as...

...the inside of the bodies of patients are somehow extended into tubes and machines, and our...

...concept of what is 'right' and 'natural' in a death trembles.

 

I'll be at the Wellcome Collection drawing live tomorrow.

At the Wellcome - 2

 

Today I started inking in.

 

I'm using Posca pens.

 

They're semi-permanent. You can wipe over them without erasing the lines but if you scrub at them, or use window cleaner, they come off quite easily. I like that my artwork is temporary. I find it frees me up to not worry so much about making mistakes which, paradoxically, means that I make fewer.

 

...but still one of my main thoughts is, "Where's the CTRL+Z for live drawing."

 

My artwork is temporary - only around until 20th March.

I'll be at the Wellcome Collection drawing live today.

The Big Draw - At The Wellcome - 1

So the day's finally come when I have to translate all those Sobell sketches into one drawing.

It's time to put something down on paper.

Trouble is, the paper's about 5 x 12 metres.

 

And it's glass.

 

I spent the first day sketching out in chinagraph.

 

What you can see in the background is the Wellcome's very fine Peyton and Byrne cafe.

 

You can see me drawing live at the Wellcome Collection this Wednesday and Friday.

 

Pictures from Sobell - 15

...and this is the corridor between the inpatients' unit and the staff's study centre. It's a bright day and the windows look over the garden and other corridors refracting through their windows, reflected up through the glass skylights, multifaceted.

 

This is my last sketch from Sobell. I'm now working on the final big drawing on the wall at the Wellcome Collection. You can find out more about it here and I'll be publishing photos of the work as it progresses all next week.

Pictures from Sobell - 14

This is D, in the same bay as N but far less mobile.

 

 He asks me, "Are you moving in?"

Pictures from Sobell - 13

N is a patient in a 3-bed 'bay'.

Whenever I've been past the door, he's been sitting in his chair reading thrillers.

 

The occupational therapist is here today to help him with the shortness of breath he's experiencing when walking with his frame. She shows him a position leaning against the wall which will help him get his breath back.