Here’s the latest report from the American Lieutenant.
This week I attended the opening ceremony of a Mouth and Foot painting exhibition currently showing at Whiteleys shopping centre, Bayswater, from 25th September until 30th October. The event was officially opened by Lindsey Hall, prospective MP for Westminster North, lindsey@lindseyhall.co.uk, and after a short speech from her, the fun started. There were 30 children from St Mary’s of the Angels School attending the opening and Tom Yendell, a mouth painter asked the children to fold a piece of A4 size paper in half then in half again. The children duly started to fold the paper. “No, not with your hands” , Tom shouted, “with your feet!” Tom then drew a cartoon figure with his mouth and asked the children to copy the figure with their normal writing hand, then with their non writing hand, followed by their foot and finally with their mouth. You can imagine there were some pretty bizarre results including Councillor Hall’s efforts!!
I then had a long chat with Barry “Bazza” West, a mouth painter from East Sussex, he told me how while driving at the age of 19 he swerved to avoid killing a badger, hit a tree and woke up a quadriplegic. He is self taught and certainly has a gift for painting. Check out his website bwest@uwclub.net
I also spoke to Phil Byrne, the manager of Whiteleys of Bayswater, he told me that Whiteleys is totally accessible and that he and his staff are always available to discuss individual needs.
Tom Yendell is also involved with a scheme called Flat Spaces, flatspaces.co.uk, which is a totally adapted two double bedroomed house that is available to rent for holidays. The idea is to build a number of these houses around the UK but one of the key elements is that every house is identical so clients will know where everything is whichever house they rent.
Go and see the exhibition at Whiteleys if you have a chance, I really enjoyed it.
