Colour And Grey

Colour And Grey

Today I received a letter which states the state has cut my benefits by £20 per week because mental health is not recognised as a valid disability.

This is what my luxury lifestyle as an independent designer costs:

internet £30pcm + mobile phone £10pcm = sum total: £40pcm

Including the small, additional costs of painters tools, it equates £10 a week;

on communications (eg; Skype so my timeshare son and his parents can talk)

on promoting my art (multi-platform and websites)

on starting a business selling my writing (multi-platform & websites) (and copyrighting it the legitimate way)

same as for my musical output such as it is in a competitive industry

on building a fan base to accomplish the above - which took 5 years

(currently at over 200 viewers per week)

For an additional £6 per month I could start selling things through the internet because that is the seller fee for renting the embed code for digital downloads sites. I do not receive sufficient funds to be at that level, it is an aspiration I have been building toward and stockpiling my produce until such time as it becomes viable.

I am grateful to be able to access the global communications and trading platform called the internet. It makes everything possible.

In 2014/15 I received a bursary of £2000 worth of cyberspace to develop my skills and promote me as a 3D virtual reality environmental artist from an Australian University based company who recognised that I am that good at what I do. What they especially liked is my attitude of breaking down barriers between traditional painting and cyber-art. This was because of my ability to access the internet and to put it to good use, networking and showcasing my talent.

My 2D art is inspired by the Welsh environments; grey skies, grey concrete urban cities, grey emotions, people seeking colour but not daring to admit it in a world where only grey is accepted, grey bureaucracy, grey people, grey culture. Apparently I represent the promise of colour and as such, concrete grey people with concrete grey souls come down on me like a ton of concrete whenever they can get away with it.

Because of my ability to access the internet, foreign investors are working through me to stimulate the local Welsh and national British economy, by investing in my productivity. Productivity is the manufacture of ‘goods to the value of’ which equates to money (ref; Blacks Law Dictionary for definition of terms). I am a valuable asset to the nation and its economy, and I am a valuable spokesperson for the importance of artists and the creative mindset.

Non-British authorities and institutions are capable of recognizing this, because they do not operate from a position of culturally indoctrinated greyness. Foreign investors seeking to stimulate economy and cultural development through independent and valued individual artists, because they have no faith in the institutionalized system to support us, have funded me not financially but through provision of hardware to encourage me as a Welsh Multi-Media Creative to develop my skills instead of despairing at the futility of the human condition.

Now that my benefits have been cut by £20 a week, I will not longer be able to afford the internet, and also I will have to come up with another £10 from somewhere to afford my rent.

Coping with my other arrears (utility bills) is another matter, I still have to come up with rather a fat sum, but not sufficiently fat as to be eligible for the government help scheme. I am not entirely dysfunctional enough to get help from the people who are now disabling me further, so in the near future as a consequence of the cut-backs, I probably will be in a position to get help from their help scheme. I have no other option.

I am on mental health benefits for stress based illness; nobody will give me a job because of the diagnosis. They do not say this is the reason directly. My only option for financial survival is to augment my benefits with income from my own business, until such time it earns enough that I can come off benefits. The system has cut my benefits and majorly stymied my progress with that regard. Government Austerity Measures are counterproductive. I am a citizen who has been disabled from progressing with my otherwise successful business due to the cut-backs. All I will be able to do from here is sit in cyberspace of my own creation, on my own computer, without sharing that environment with anybody else for profit, until such time as the bills come through and i have to sell all of my hardware to repay the bills. At which time all my years of training and foreign investment into myself and therefore the british economy, will have been for nothing. That is the direct result of the governments protocol.

Who knows, perhaps a miracle will happen.

I am at a stage where I need to put the immediate reality of feeding my 5 year old and keeping us warm through the bitterly cold Welsh weather, more importantly than attempting to make money from my art. We cannot eat aspiration.

I have been offered a job selling drugs for a major local dealer. I would be able to disappear off the system within a few months because I am intelligent enough to work my way up the chain and re-invest my earnings in the business. I do not want to do this for three reasons. One, I am not criminally minded. Two, I do not wish to influence society by getting people hooked on drugs. Three, I do not intend to risk going to jail. The cold calculated analytical view of it being a purely financial option it is the better option than living on the streets from non-payment of rent and utility bills and having my opportunity to start a legitimate, safe business venture thwarted by government policy and inept bureaucracy. It is a much better option than suicide, which many people in my position have resorted to as the only viable way out. This is food for thought; not only for myself but for many people in similar situations to myself. Governmental repression creates criminals and promotes drug abuse, while repressing enterprising creative artists who are already producing and of benefit to the british economy. That needs to be addressed directly in parliament. A copy of this blog has been forwarded to the relevant respective MPs.

The situation needs to change.

There are two historic precedents as to how it can change.

One, the peaceful and preferable route, is what Iceland did in 2011 when the Icelandic police upheld the Law and arrested the criminal bankers and governors who were involving the nation in destitution, regarded as corrupt and anti-humanitarian policies. They proved that the system can be changed when the system fails to serve the people; that people are more valuable than a broken system. In Britain, the People do not have the support of the police, who continue to ignore the law and protect the tyranny of criminal bankers and politicians.

Two, the bloody revolt option, has historically been proved to work in instigating a more fair, people-based system than the preceding tyranny which provoked it. This has been shown to be the case in nations all over the world throughout all of recorded history. Independence Day, Bastille Day, the Communist revolutions of Russia and Cuba, are such examples I am certain you are familiar with. A short, bloody coup; executions of the tyrants for their crimes against humanity, followed by at least several generations of equitable and people-oriented social progress along with a stronger economy.

The splash of colour within the grey. It is up to all of us to decide whether that colour that should be.

Please click this link to find out what You can do to make a difference by donating or purchasing some of my paintings. If I do not respond to you it means they have shut my internet off for non-ability to pay the bill.