:: TOWER BRIDGE ::

The life-states that we experience are diverse. We can feel hunger and sadness on a beautiful sunny day in the park, and a rainy miserable evening in winter we may be filled with great compassion and calm. A place is just a mirror to our feelings. Here are two very different views of Tower Bridge. The first was a response to an event on the bank of the Thames, when a group of kids targeted passers by to film the beating on their mobile phones. As they egged each other on, the violence got worse and worse until a man was finally killed. I was drawing at this spot above when a beefeater from the Tower of London asked me to move, because he 'doesn't like my sort". I didn't know what he meant and who I reminded him of, but dressed in his comedy archaic costume, he harboured deep resentment and anger.

Below is a picture from the top of Guys Hospital towards Canary Warf. It started with a late night meeting at le Gothique next door with Simon Sessler. He's in the music business and was asked to gather his friends together to get some auction prizes for Shooting Star Children's Hospice at the Embassy Club in Mayfair. He said it would be a good idea to put some of my pictures up and do a commission as one of the prizes. Joan Collins was hosting it though she didn't seem that interested in my conversation, so I sat back and let the bids begin. It was all good, going to a great cause and meeting lots of interesting people. John Lesley was bidding against Liz Taylor, but Liz won. She's not the actress, but married to Andy Taylor, not from Duran Duran, but a founder of the Sancturary Group. I was invited over to their home in London, and measured up their wall and discussed the idea. Andy wanted something of the city and not too dark, I had done some warm up sketches of places I could go to - and because I have been on commission at Guy's hospital I had arranged for the view from the top floor- 30 floors up, over looking the capital.

My journey to Guy's was a pleasant one, passing the busker singing "That's Life", which made me smile especially as I've been a bit down recently because of the usual worries of paying the rent and having the freedom to paint. "That's Life, thats what all the people say. You are riding high in April, shot down in May. But I know I'm gonna change my tune, when I'm back on top in June." So i go on my merry way, and I meet Jannette, who spends her days in the cubby-hole on the left, handing out lab coats for the medics.The hospital let me store my gear here, in Janette's office. We become friends, She loves my company because it can be a bit lonely at the top. She gives me advice about life, photo-copying words of wisdom from her gospel church leaflets, "After a while you learn the difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul. In time you begin to accept your defeats with the grace of an adult, not the grief of a child." We talk food, and I buy her some okra from Shepherd's Bush. Its all good and I leave with some redemption and somehow I feel everything is going to be ok . It always is when you send out good vibes.