Crisis Skylight Art Room

Caroline, an artistand adult education tutor working at Crisis Skylight, has been involved in developing the site. Working with adults in housing crisis, she planned to use the Value of Art website as the starting point for a discussion of ideas about art and value. Caroline focused the discussion on the themes as featured on the discussion board: The relationship between Modern Art and the Public, the relationship of Art and Money and the role of Art in Society. Due to technical problems access to the internet was denied. Instead, Caroline used a minidisc to record individual responses to questions around issues of value.

Below are four sound clips from a conversation with Chris. Below each link to a sound clip is a transcript of its content. In the first clip, Chris introduces himself, and in the other three he responds to the three themes mentioned above.

My name is Christopher Lakony. I’ve been practising painting at the Crisis Centre since April 2003. I am a design engineer and a graduate from Brunel University.

I’ve been homeless for nine months and was settled in Tower Hamlets where the office of Crisis is based. I am enjoying my time at the Crisis centre, painting in the studio and being involved in other activities such as writing, drama and music. Now I’ve totally stopped doing other things and I am concentrating totally on painting.

I started painting from the basics and now I’m doing advanced with the help of staff members Caroline and Nicola, who were there from the beginning. I’ve enjoyed my time.

I think art plays a big role in society and to the public in particular. Art is a form of therapy to the painter and, if I look at it from the perspective of a member of the public, it can be very therapeutic as well. Art tells a lot about a person as well as about society, which a person is a member of. As an African my art reflects my cultural aspect of life. This is a very important aspect to the public – hence I ask myself, what does the public gain from it?

Basically, the public is shown the world from the perspective of an artist; art portrays the health, the average mental health of people in a particular society.

My art is always very bright, very warm and whoever sees my work has always tended to straightaway describe the warmth that is in it. This warmth is what reflects really what I am. I have never been a personal sufferer from any depression, never been involved with any, you know, mental problems of that kind. Hence, my work reflects my attitude about life.

I didn’t start painting because I wanted to earn a living from it. It was more of a form of therapy for me, because having been on the street it was very difficult to come back to a normal life of nine to five employment and the rest of it. Therefore, when I started painting it wasn’t at all to earn money but to have something to do. Painting has contributed a lot towards my happiness and in restoring my confidence in general life, the daily events.

However, I have now started to enjoy the fact that I could make money from it, which was not, obviously, as I mentioned before, the initial intention. I think art should answer money, especially if one has got money. A painting talks about one’s life and helps other people to gain therapeutic values from it.

How much would one pay for a particular artwork? Personally, I think it should be according to how many hours have gone into it, the costs of materials and the actual composition of the art. So for me, art and money are strictly linked in the sense that money should reflect the materials and man-hours that have gone into it, and I’m looking at that as an engineer.

I think society has failed art from the perspective of the so-called ‘art experts’. However, as individual members of a society, we have a responsibility in trying to promote the really gifted who are doing art, and there are quite a lot of them.

In western society the art society taught people to feel art from the perspective of the art experts. This results in loosing a lot of skills of people who could be giving a lot to society in terms of painting. Simply because of one’s background, where they went through education, it makes them totally irrelevant in their contribution towards art of the particular society in which one lives.

I am living in Britain and because I haven’t been to an art school in Britain my work may not be thoroughly recognised by the experts. As a result, I do not get the relevant advertisement and in turn society does not get to know the kind of art I do. Society does not gain from what I am offering, whereas society should give anyone opportunities and power.

I think current Western society is unfair and does not promote and support those who are skilled in painting or any other art forms, however it should do.

Crisis Skylight Art Room

Crisis Skylight encourages members to build their self esteem by actively engaging in new & challenging skills. While the centre offers a broad selection of activities, Caroline is involved in running the art room. The art room welcomes 25-30 members each day, and is open 7 days a week. Specific workshops are run daily, e.g. print making, clay modelling, life drawing etc., and exhibitions are often organised for members to display their work. The group is of mixed ability; some of the artists being quite well established with their work, whilst others are completely new to making art.

Photographs courtesy of Crisis