ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I am a self-taught artist.What I am not, is a "disabled artist"That I have "recognised" disabilities is not at issue. That, given choice, I would
happily have forsaken my life experiences for a more "normal" life, is unquestioned. However, even although my work is undoubtedly influenced
by my "life experience" others would be ill-advised to put the words "disabled" and "artist" together, or even use the word , "disabled", in any
reference to myself, or my work.I am not my disabilities.One last thought. Do "normal" individuals regard the work of "disabled" artists as "real" art...?
Art critics do not. And yet, is there an art critic who would not sell their soul to possess even one work by one of the world's most famous "disabled"
artists - Vincent van Gogh? Shortly after taking up photography, I found little challenge in "normal" portraiture. The photographic portrait was one
of my first, where I used the negative as a starting point in attempting to create an image that showed the individual as I saw them....Born in Glasgow 1947,
and based at the Trongate Studios in Glasgow. Belief system: Pragmatic ahisma "Heroes": Christ, Paul Robeson, Steve Biko... Basically, any individual who,
regardless of consequences to themselves, or the opposition they encounter, are prepared to fight injustice, and the rights of the many, to even the most
fundamental human dignity and opportunity. "Antiheroes": GPs, mental health carers, and other users, abusers, and hypocrites, in whatever walk of life.