2011 Project365 (days158-159)

Date: 08 June 2011 19:31:36

8th June:

This is a painting I bought years and years ago, at madchurch's summer camp. The one thing I really loved about madchurch was that it had loads of people working abroad who would come back for the camp and tell us of their work overseas, there were some really amazing people over the years. For several years there were a group of people working, amongst other things, with people in a psychiatric hospital and one of the activities they did with the patients (who by the sound of things had pretty basic care otherwise, and shocking care by western standards) was art classes/therapy. They brought a number of the paintings back with them to sell at the camp to plough back into their work in the hospital, this was one of them. I always remember them talking about it, and saying about one patient who told them "they used to call me Anna the Mad Woman, but now they call me Anna the Artist". I don't know if this painting is by Anna or not, but I still think of that story every time I see it, and I'm glad that for a time her dignity was restored.

7th June:

I met up with surfing for a drink and a blether. This is what was over our heads (and over the bar) if we looked up.