What perspective are you looking at The Troubles from?
When I got out I did a number of Diplomas, a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Foundation Diploma in Photography and an HNC in Photography. One of my tutors was talking to me about how art was used by the Republican side of the conflict to show their ideas, to let people know what their ideas were. He suggested that I could look at things from the Loyalist side which hasn’t really been done.
And you are still connected to the Prison Arts Foundation?
Prison Arts Foundation have been brilliant. They give you hope, skills, and later employment. I was a convicted terrorist sentenced to 42 years in prison and now I am teaching art in Magilligan prison which is where I learned how to draw, and paint, properly.
It shows that with the right people, and the right support and a lot of thinking outside of the box in giving people like me a chance, great things can happen.
You mentioned that you go to exhibitions. Is that something you do regularly?
When I was doing my Diplomas, it was quite strange because I had been in prison and so I didn’t know about a lot of things like tech things, things like that. I had to keep asking all the young people what a lot of things were. But the course made me look up artists, look into their work, I had to start researching and learning about art and about artists.
As a good example of where that lead me, for my final piece I created a chess board shaped like a map of Northern Ireland but it’s based on my life. It’s me playing Death a game of chess and it looks at the positive and negative influences in my life. I got the idea from a Salvador Dali painting, Melting Clocks. It is also based on a Caravaggio painting as well. I really love Caravaggio’s art.
Where to now?
I was very ill a little while ago, I died twice around 2021 because my kidneys were filled to 90% of blood, my lungs and heart were badly damaged. I managed to survive so I’m trying to do as much as I can.
I have the work about The Troubles I already talked about, I am teaching in HMP Magilligan, and the way I see it is that when Alison Wilson was sick, dying with cancer, she came in and taught me and had a huge impact on my life. Sometimes everything around me seems mad, but whatever happens, I want to do something, help someone, the way Alison helped me.
I just want to give back and support people and I just take each day as it comes. Whatever the future holds is what the future holds.
