I knew that getting a Gallery to show my WALK A MILE piece wouldn’t just happen at the click of my fingers. But to be told by on of the first I approached was great, they that they love the piece and would love to show it, a real confidence boost. They then contact me a few weeks later withdrawing the offer because the ‘theme’ of my work does not fit with the work this particular gallery generally show. That pissed me off somewhat, but hey-ho, what can you do?
Shortly afterwards I got contacted by a researcher at the BBC, who was shown my website by a friend of a friend, there was a pilot being made featuring several artists getting to show & sell a piece of work, a sort of X-Factor for artists. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I agreed to put in a bronze piece called ‘Prison Shirt’, I told her about my background, getting into art whilst in prison sentence and starting me degree whilst still serving, she told me it would warrant more interest and I’d get a call from someone at the production company soon. I then got a call a few days late, from a woman who was the casting director, saying that they initially put me forward having on of the strongest pieces of work with an excellent story to go with it, but they’ve since been advised not to use me as there were concerns that ‘IT COULD BE DEEMED THAT I AM PROFITING FROM MY CRIME’.
I said it was surely more a matter of Art being used as a tool on the rehabilitation process, a ‘bad boy turned good’ tale, but the decision was made.
But things started to look up that very day, I was talking to an artist, on Twitter (I’m @mizogArt ) who said they’d seen my WALK A MILE project a few months prior and had sent me a pair of shoes with a regret for it. He said he’d shown a few others including one of the guys who runs his gallery and asked if I was represented by a gallery… Looking good! He contacted me himself, via Twitter to say that he’d also sent me a pair of shoes for the project and how much he loved the concept and the compassion of the piece and would show it to his partner when she returns from a business trip, to possibly show the finished piece. I heard nothing for nearly three weeks, then he DM’d me on Twitter saying that they’d looked at my work and it was possibly a little too aggressive for their gallery. This got me down, I remembered that a friend had told me not to burn bridges with galleries, but I thought BOLLOCKS to that! I mentioned that a few weeks prior he took part in a project which was created to not judge others, not take people at face value and give people a chance to have their say, even he said how ‘oozes compassion’, then turns around and says my work is ‘possibly a little too aggressive’. I tried to state all this WITHOUT coming across as aggressive, which is pretty hard when you’re pissed off!
If there is another gallery who would like to show the WALK A MILE piece please contact me, but the body of my work does reflect my experiences during 7yrs in Prison. It was not a nice place and had very few positives, it is, for most, a sad, lonely and violent place. My work tries to reflect that not glorify it.
