I was a late-comer to The Bridge That Connects. By the time I joined to take part in the Chirk brief, the project was in full swing and had a show planned, giving me two months to produce several portraits. Phew!
The scale of this project was immense, pulling together so many varied strands and disciplines, not just locally, but all over Britain. This is the first project I’ve worked on that is truly a REAL community project involving local people.
The project itself has a base centred around the Pontcysyllte Bridge in Trevor . This 18-arched stone and cast iron structure was started in 1795 and completed in 1805. It is 12 feet (3.7 metres) wide and is the longest aqueduct in Britain, as well as the highest canal aqueduct in the world.
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- Carl Williams
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- Drawing Carl
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- Ink
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- Portrait of Carl held by his Son Nikki
Carl – The Wild Man of Rock
Carl (son of Cussy) dressed all in denim lived around the corner and would glide up our path subtly tossing his beautiful long curly blonde Robert Plant hair clutching a copy of Led Zepp 4 (on vinyl).
We’d lie on my bed, just the very best of friends and I’d sing (badly) and he’d look at me like I was bonkers and shake his head.
Carl the wild man of rock.
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a spring clean for the May Queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
And there’s still time to change the road you’re on
The Two Faces of Jason
“I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anyone else to feel like that.”
― Robin Williams
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- Drawing Jason
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- The Two Faces of Jason
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- Jason
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- Drawing Jason
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- Fay (Jason's aunty)
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- Meryl and her Mum's portrait
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- Phyllis for The Bridge That Connects project
Phyllis Jones – Mother of Christine and Meryl
Phyllis was perfection, a mum I fantasised about, kind, with skin like porcelain, gentle, and startlingly beautiful with the bluest eyes.
She glowed with all the love she had inside her
John Williams (Cussy)
Hero and milk man
(WHY Cussy? Because he couldn’t say custard as a kid).
We lived around the corner and he tormeted my mother.
‘Cal-line’ he would shout as loud as he could ‘What colour drawers have you got on today’?
My dad would be bent double laughing…
‘ARSE coloured’ she’d reply.
(Sigh, 1970s when you could be RUDEfunny and not offend anyone).
Caroline & Isobel
‘Immortal Enemies’
Christmas Day 1968 in Whitehurst Gardens.
There’s 5ft of snow outside and the sherry is flowing freely.
Here we see Caroline (aged 28) Wife of Ken – and Isobel, Mother of Ken (aged 52 – She brought her comfy slippers in a Kwik Save bag).
They sit so demurely for a photo while the rest of us (myself, my dad Ken and his little brother Stephen) look on in anticipatory horror.
Will Caroline impale Isobel with her beautiful red chrome pedestal ashtray?
Tina & Carol 1973
Tina (6) & Carol (10) with Puppies
The Hamlets of Chirk: Black Park, The Hollow, and Whitehurst are small societies that orbit the star in the centre of the Universe (Chirk).
Here are 2 little girls from Whitehurst, their dads are Miners and both work at Bersham Colliery.
Carol’s dad Keith has a nickname (as did most miners) ‘Yumma’.
Yumma?
Why yes, he was well known for his moaning, and saying ‘Yamunna do that’……
Here is the Chirk Miners prayer.
Ya Munna say dunna,
It tinner polite.
Ya canner say that
Cos that inner right!
Caroline Wallace-Jones-Rogers 1974
Adopted at 18 months, Susanna Wallace (born in Ireland) became Caroline Jones and only found out about her Noble Scottish heritage 50 years later.
5 ft 2 of fiesty, her life story would make a best seller, from working for gangsters to nearly running away to Naples, and lets NOT mention Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen. OOhh! Oobee do, I wanna be like You hooohooo…..
Some photos from the event at the Parish Hall in Chirk on November 23rd 2024
(all photos artists own).
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- Angel
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- David
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- Andrea
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- Ink
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- Gold leaf for the angel
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- Andrea
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- Rogers Family & Geoffrey Pearce
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- Martin
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- Jane
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- Stephen and Jane
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- Fiona
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- Trevor family Crypt - Angel & Mary
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- Brian
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- Andrea
I’m not an artist that really plans what they’re going to draw. By that I mean ideas just pop up, I even dream paintings, and I’m very drawn to painting people. But that is complicated -Trying to get that elusive ‘likeness’. The person I love most – My son. I find it nearly impossible to draw him and have to give up.
For Pobl Y Ffin – a community placemaking project from Chirk was my passion – Note I say ‘was’ as after trying twice to get the funding along with Black Park Chapel Trust, we just couldn’t get it from the Arts Council of Wales. It was and remains heartbreaking. Now the chapel has been lost and so has the Pobl.
But in a way The Bridge that Connects has given it some life. Working with the people from Chirk, reminiscing, and drawing portraits of local people, those we’ve lost and those who are still very much alive and kicking!
Here are some of the new owners with the portraits from The Bridge that connects, the organisation was very kind by donating the frame to the family, while I gave them the painting.
I know it meant the world to all of them.
Connection – Memories – love.
HUGE thanks to the lovely Jo Marsh from Ty Pawb for thinking of me and an even bigger thank you to Clare Farrell for giving me the confidence and opportunity to be involved in this wonderful project.
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- Fay (Jason's aunty)
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- Sarah with the portrait of her Father in law Cussy
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- Pat and her daughter Fiona
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- Portrait of Carl held by his Son Nikki
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- Meryl and her Mum's portrait
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- Jean with the portrait of her husband Martin
