Dear Darling

My dear darling has a story behind her. I always loved art growing up as it was a great escape for me but I stopped painting when I was 14 and Dear Darling was the first painting I created since. I was living in the care system from 15-18 where I got up to no good and was always in trouble with the police. You are a product of your environment and mine was an environment of damaged and abandoned young people so try not to judge if you can. I had community service in 2017 and our task was to create art for the community. My group were taught about respect and giving back to others in a nurturing way through Painting which allowed their words to seep through to myself and my group. An artist came into the group and showed us how to paint before giving us tasks to paint for ourselves. I already knew of Terry Bradley and his amazing art and I wanted to make something similar to his style. I painted Dear Darling and later the Ulster Museum hung up all our art after completing the course. Many people would've disagreed with this but we were happy for the experience of being noticed or seen in a positive way and it encouraged people in my group to avoid those who influenced them badly. This experience showed me a lot about myself and others and has been a memorable factor that encouraged me to want to work with young people and communities towards development.