Good people doing good things

It'd be easy to become overwhelmed by the bad in the world. But there are loads of good people out there who are trying to redress the balance and put some good into the world. While my circumstances make it difficult to play a bigger part I'm proud to of played a small part in supporting some of these people.

Every second year London hosts one of the largest arms fairs in the world. The wealthy flock to our country to browse the death and destruction we have for sale. Art the Arms Fair was set up in 2017 to draw attention to DSEI and raised over £250,000 for good causes, I'm proud to of played a small part in the work they do.

Newcastle West End Food Bank was set up in 2013 and is the largest food bank in the country. In 2017 I was asked by a friend (one of the organisers of the Newcastle United Supporters food bank) to make an original artwork to auction to raise money for the food bank. So I made the painting below using a still from the Ken Loach film I, Daniel Blake with the kind permission of Sixteen Films. It also features a quote from Shelley's poem, The Masque of Anarchy. 200 years later and it's pretty horrifying that the poem is still so relevant. The painting went into an online auction and thanks to the very lovely people who bought the original and the prints made, it raised a pretty decent amount of money for the food bank.

Rise like lions.