Diary Drawing Day 72 , 1997
30.5 x 22.9 cm (h x w)
Watercolour and pencil on paper

I put this one in because I just I love it as a painting, but I love the people in this painting. And I've made really good friends, I made some of the best friends I'll ever make in the mental health system. I met people who were the most sensitive, interesting, intelligent people, people who react like this litmus paper to injustice and abuse and inhumanity and yet are, you know, you're seen as a tragic figure, and yet you are funny and interesting. And so on the left is Bachlee and it's my dear friend Mims and Bachlee is quite assertive. She came into the art room and the people used to pop in and see me then and look at my drawings. And she said, "So you went to art school, prove it!", it was quite a challenge. And I, you know, I wouldn't call myself a portrait painter, but in the jollity of that moment and the sun coming through the window of the art room. I painted them as they chatted, and dear Mims gazed at me. And luckily it looks like them although, Bachlee's shoulders are a little bit low, but it was so funny, and they liked it. And we went to the pub and drank whiskey as a celebration. So I put that in to celebrate all the incredible underestimated, overlooked and marvellous people who are the so-called ‘disordered’ people of the world, but most often are the most ordered in their thinking.

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