Lockdown 2020
Art for the NHS
Restricted access to the world around me, a cancelled operation, a sense of helplessness, inspiring community art, a desire to document in limited surroundings, an idea to show gratitude and support, a commissioning. The factors that led to creation of photographic mosaics dedicated to the brave and hardworking staff of the NHS.
Read on to find how the project was created and brought to fruition.
Roll on 2020! New projects, new hip, get fit. It’s going to be a great year.
That was January.
There was only one problem. One big problem. One global problem. Covid 19.
By March 2020 the world, for the most part, had effectively shut down.
We went into lockdown. As a person at risk because of a suppressed immune system I was told to ‘shield’. That meant staying at home, indoors, for 12 weeks. Gulp! Thankfully I had immediate support from my friends and neighbours who offered to keep me supplied with food and essentials but the idea of staying indoors was not appealing. I’m one of the lucky ones who has a back garden so I was able to talk over the walls to my neighbours.
Another health problem had just reared its head too. On the 13 March I had gone into hospital to have a hip replacement but, after three hours of thorough care and preparation, I was sent home by 10am. All unessential operations were cancelled due to the growing spread of the Covid 19 pandemic. Who could blame them? I was shocked. I had just missed out.
Although not told when a new date would be set, my own thought was that I was unlikely to be operated on for at least a year. What to do? If I did nothing with my hip it was going to deteriorate quicker than it already was. I needed to last out for another year or eighteen months? Who knew?
Since everyone was staying in I decided to take some tentative steps outside my front door to get some exercise and go for safe, socially distanced walks around my neighbourhood. And tentative they were, at first. It was eerie with very few people about and little or no traffic. Initially, I took the same route, a loop around a few blocks from my house. After a day or two I began to notice the children’s (mostly) art in the windows and started to photograph it. This art was mostly rainbows as they had become a symbol for hope for us all and more importantly, of support for the NHS which, like so many healthcare systems around the world, was under severe pressure from Covid cases. Other key workers were shown support too.
I gradually grew in confidence being out and still taking great care to avoid direct contact and social distancing I began to photograph the windows on every street on my side of town. Before long I had hundreds. It very quickly occurred to me that I had a project here and decided the best way to bring together this community art would be in the shape of a mosaic. A giant mosaic. Well, a very large mosaic. Since I couldn’t walk too far I even drove to the other side of town and walked a few blocks at a time. It was certainly therapeutic having a project to keep me busy and doing something that felt so positive. I’m sure I covered about 95% of town. I felt good. People were being very artistic. There were rainbows of all types. Scribbly ones drawn by younger children, paintings, knitted ones, Lego ones, decoupages, collages, all kind of ‘ages’ , made by all ages. It was such a positive thing. They all colourfully and gratefully showed a solidarity with the NHS and other key workers. They were dedicated with a genuine support.
I contacted the manager of our local hospital in Llandough, Peter Welsh, to see if there was any interest in the project. To my surprise, as I thought he would have far more urgent matters to attend to, he replied immediately very complementarily and passed my details to his colleague Simone Joslyn, the Head of Arts and Health Charity for the NHS in the Vale of Glamorgan, who also replied very quickly and very enthusiastically.
She told me another hospital, in the next town from me, Barry, was going to be celebrating its 25th anniversary in September. She would love a mosaic for there. Fantastic! I had been commissioned. A minor problem lay in the fact I hadn’t taken photographs in that area. Despite having hundreds of rainbow photos from my own town Penarth, I wanted to keep the community aspect to the project, so the mosaic should be made up from window art from Barry too. It was more walking the streets, more exercise for me, which wasn’t easy for me but necessary, and within a few weeks I had taken hundreds more.
I would make two mosaics, one for each hospital, each one measuring 6ft by 4ft (1.8m by 1.2m). I was so pleased that I could make a tiny contribution of gratitude in these uncertain and restricted times.
The other thing I thought was important was that the base image for each mosaic would come from each area too. I felt that it would make the project more authentic and add to the community aspect. Two images stood out for me while photographing and I made note of the addresses so I could contact them. When I did so they were delighted to be involved. A huge thanks goes to Leigharne Phillips in Penarth, who drew the picture with the various staff members and Lisa Fletcher in Barry, who created the rainbow picture, for agreeing to contribute their artwork to the project.
When I thought I had enough rainbow pictures and spent a lot of time editing everything fell into place really. I made the mosaics, having got to grips with a computer program, and when I was happy I sent them for printing with my trusted printers Davies Colour in Cardiff. They were as helpful as ever and produced the work, printed, mounted and coated. I am very grateful to Andrew and David there for their brilliant work.
My sincere thanks again to all the aforementioned names and of course to the creativity and dedicated support that was shown by the communities of Penarth and Barry. I am most grateful and hope I’ve done you proud.
At the time of writing, the mosaics have yet to be installed. I am waiting to hear back from Simone. I’ll update as soon as I hear anything.
P.S. Good News! As of the start of October 2020 the mosaic for Barry hospital has been installed. (See below)
AND…As of the end of November 2020 the Llandough hospital mosaic has been installed. (See below)
Below is a small selection of the window art in the towns of Penarth and Barry.
