Capt SpaceBat

Today was another rather mixed day, not unlike many: this time with new and subtle twists and a new direction.  Quite a lot for a short sentence, I grant you; please bear with me.

Sarah and I had several things to do today; some it would seem deliberately thwarted by the ill preparedness of others.  Going into town, we were held up at Balham due to an unspecified - free-floating, even - track or signal problem.  After a long wait and the return of the law of diminishing returns , we decided to change both route and mode of transport, managing to achieve all of our goals with comparative ease.  So far, so good, until our ultimate port of call.

Sarah was to exhibit some of her paintings at a new art gallery, to which we ventured through the residual snow and concomitant transport chaos to arrive in good time to hang her works.  When we arrived, we found that the venue was not prepared, the hanging space was in process of assembly, and the fellow artists were hanging around bemused in the ensuing chaos.  We repaired to a nearby hostelry for refreshment - as not was available at the venue - and to reconsider our options.

After a short discussion, it transpired that we would probably be hanging around for another three or more hours before the exhibition actually began, if the venue was ever ready in time.  Then we would have to try to “smile & look attractive” whilst surrounded by similarly glum exhibitors and apparently uncaring organisers: thereby throwing good time and money after bad.

The scenes of chaos, despair, and misery were not unlike those found in the catering facilities of hospitals throughout the land.  Sarah had found much the same feeling when waiting in the canteen for me to emerge from my psychotherapy sessions at Springfield Hospital .  During this period, she wrote poems to explore her thoughts and feelings of what was a very bleak situation.  Sarah has collated her poems into a work entitled, aptly, “The Green Canteen.”

We decided that collaborative and collective work was the way forward – as outlined by Mr Marx and others  -  combining the artistic experiences and endeavours of both carers and sufferers (people like me) their charges  was the only possible way forward.    We hit on the idea of “the Green Canteen” as a forum for our work and of those of people in similar situations, leading to proper, respectful exhibitions of works from both end of the mental health spectrum.

This will happen in another place, without angels.  It is “time to change.”

“Artists in Rectitude”
(c) Ian Springham, 2009

Diminishing returns:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns

Springfield Hospital: 
http://www.swlstg-tr.nhs.uk/contact/springfield_university_hospital.asp

Artists Collectives:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_collective

Marx & Collectives: 
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/rbr/rbr1_marxstat.html

Carers UK 
http://www.carersuk.org/

Time to change: 
http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/