TRACIE ANGIOLINI, one of our regular visitors at Cultivate, is fundraising for St Joseph’s Hospice. I have a massive respect  for St Joseph’s, the place is a vital part of the Hackney community, the real community and the real Hackney that is, not the here-today-gone-later-today coffee drinking Hackney, St Joseph’s is a rather vital part of the real East End of London, the real community (so East London that I met Barbara Windsor there once). Community is important, art needs to be about community, galleries need to be, we like to think Cultivate is…

Over to Tracie…

“I have been volunteering at St Joseph’s Hospice for the past two years and have been blown away by the services they provide. These services are provided to all members of the community regardless of race, faith or creed. Everybody, those nearing the end of life and those with life-limiting illnesses is treated with care, dignity and respect.

So despite my advancing years and creaky bones I have decided to drag myself across a blisteringly hot desert to raise much-needed funds to enable the hospice to continue its good work. After the trek we will be completing a community project (painting a school/hospital)   watch this space…….”

Now you could just go cut to the chase and donate via  Tracie’s Sahara desert trek and community project page but then, we thought we’d like to do a little more to support our  near neighbours just along Mare Street  . Part of Tracie’s plans involve a fundraising art auction and raffle, that should be coming along in May, more about that is in a couple of weeks, I shall be donating some pieces and indeed exhibiting some of the work at Cultivate, hopefully a few of my fellow East London artists will join in.   I pass the hospice every day on my  way to Cultivate, and I think most people who have lived around here for any length of time have been touched by the place in some way, indeed we lost a good friend of the gallery late last year and I know St Joseph’s was a great comfort to him and his friends, so we’d also like to do this something in remembrance of Ian Mackenzie Smith

This week I have put a piece of work up on ebay, a recent painting of mine. All funds from this sale will go to Tracie and St. Josephs. This is partly about fundraising and partly about publicising and supporting what Tracie is doing. I shall be creating and donating another piece of work later on.

The piece for-sale on Ebay right now is a piece called TOURIST TRAP – MILD MILD WHERE? The piece measures 50cm x 50cm and is on deep-edged canvas, the piece is part of my “blank canvas” series of works – pieces painted on found objects, canvas pieces that others have worked on and such. This particular canvas was bought at a jumble sale at St. Jospeh’s a couple of weeks ago. One of those dreadful generic pre-printed canvas pieces, a slice of tat that demanded someone paint on it. The original print is a mix of Banksy images and London tourist images, including Banksy’s Mild Mild West (now remind me, where in London did he paint that? Ah yes, Bristol… he must laugh his head off when he sees all this cheap tat that cashes in on his art)

The auction ends on April 23rd, here’s the link