Ode to Obie by Vicky Lindo and Bill Brookes

Pot

“My mother battled with many illnesses towards the end of her life and died this year in January. Obie is the hospice dog. He comes to spread a little joy, Thank you for sending the sadness away Obie, for the time that you were there. Even in her hospice bed she was sat snipping and collaging her last picture, she had hoped to get it finished before she left but sadly it did not happen. The pot shows mum working on a painting of Obie, me and my 3 sisters like paper dolls cut from one of her magazines. I have 2 faces, one of a daughter and 1 of a carer. Family, gardening, birds and home were everything to her. She was the queen bee to us. A crane for longevity. She lives on through all of us.”

“Ode to Obie and She was there until she wasn’t, 2 pots inspired by my mum. My mum was a great artist and a true creative. She brought up me and my 3 sisters in a small house in a village on Exmoor by herself while working many different jobs from cooking, cleaning and for the most part of her life working as a secretary. When she wasn’t working she was making, drawing, painting and cooking. She was a prolific collage artist and the house was always full of cut up magazines, small pieces of paper scattered everywhere, pots of PVA glue with dried brushes lining the windowsills, paintings and collages at various states piled against every wall. The smell of linseed oil and oil paint strong in the air if there wasn’t something delicious baking in the oven. Without realising it then this was my art education.”