Carving, Just Carving in the Rain

Dab Hands, otherwise in residence at the Manchester Museum, remains under lock-down so over the last few weeks I have been cracking on with painting from the sofa and woodcarving outside, in glorious sunshine one minute, and torrential rain the next. This British summer, after a beautiful spring, is nothing if not changeable.

The carving has been a joy and I have learned loads, exploring which blades to use for each curve and just how sharp they need to be to work well. Sharpening has become a bit of an obsession, as has discovering the language and tools of the wood-carver: ‘skew’, ‘sloyd’, ‘riffler’ and (one for the surgeons) ‘veiner’, are particular favourites!

The carving I am working on is of my partner Gee’s hand, holding one of his growing collection of succulent plants. It originally started life as a practice piece, but I have decided to include it in the Dab Hands exhibition, which will take place at Manchester Museum in 2022. I came to that decision as I realised that the sculpture tells a story very particular to the time it was made: of battling the lock-down blues by communing with nature, gardening and nurturing house plants. These pastimes are where so many of us have found solace and a boost to well-being during the time of Covid 19, furloughs and social bubbles. Gee assures my son Alf and I that he is not just staring at his plants, but watching them, and there’s a difference.

For the portrait, Gee chose to hold a cutting of a crassula cultivar, ‘Morgan’s Beauty’. It is a beautiful plant with vertical repetitions of its four leaf form, which reminds me of the stacked hands of children playing ‘one potato, two potato’. I hope to show the sculpture alongside images from the museum’s wonderful Herbarium collection.

Painting Sue

I have also been working on a painting of Sue Peel, a regular at my Maggie’s Manchester Facing Out and Hearty Arts craft workshops, who has become a good friend over the past few years. Sue’s portrait is of her making some macrame, one of the workshops that went particularly well- they are always fun when Sue is around!

I asked Sue to be part of the project because she was born with a number of physical problems, including clenched fists that required physio to open up. She was left with limited mobility in her left hand but really enjoys crafting and particularly loves the social life that comes with crafting together. Sometimes Sue’s hand means that she finds some elements of the activities challenging, but she has lived a life of challenges and is a wonderful woman in spite of, and I suspect because of, all the challenges that she has experienced.

Sue was kind enough to write about her physical challenges for this project:

I was born with Spina-Bifida which means my spinal cord didn’t develop properly in the womb,  Scoliosis which is an S shaped curvature of the spine, a club foot and my hands in a fist like position. The scoliosis restricted some movement in my left arm. From birth my Mum and Nan did a lot of physio on the hands to uncurl them. It was noticeable that my left hand wasn’t quite right in that my thumb always sat inwards and the movement wasn’t as fluid. At just under 2 years old I had an operation on my club foot to fuse it as I was walking on the inside of my foot. Apparently even when I was in plaster cast I walked upstairs and rode my trike so my parents and grandparents knew I was going to be trouble! I also had some spine surgery to try to slow my curvature and release my shoulder then had to wear a Milwaukee back brace.

I was encouraged to do everything that my older brother did at my age which I am very thankful for. We climbed trees, ran around, roller-skated, played knock and run and generally tumbled around. I dressed myself including putting shoes on and tying laces. The noticeable thing was I had a wonky back and a bit of a limp!

I had to go for regular check ups for my spine curvature as it was getting worse and affecting my lungs. There was an operation they did to fuse the spine at age 14 but I was only coming to the age of 10 when my parents were requested to consider me having the surgery as they felt I may not make it to my 11th birthday without surgery. A few months after my 10th birthday I had my spine fusion surgery. It didn’t quite go to plan because my left leg was paralysed and I lost sensation to my left side and was unable to control my bladder. But I was alive!

I spent almost 4 months in hospital and I was sent home with a full length leg calliper and in plaster cast from my head to my bum. I worked hard with physio and soon got rid of the calliper walking with a rollator. I went from the plaster cast to 2 years in a moulded plastic body brace. I was now realised I was restricted in a different way, unable to bend or twist my spine, unable to duck and still  restrictions using my left arm. I did manage to get back on my feet with splints and used crutches sometimes and a wheelchair sometimes.

Age 17 I started having problems with extreme pain in my right leg (the club foot leg). After numerous trips to A&E were unsuccessful I had an appointment with my hospital consultant and he gave me an ultimatum… Use a wheelchair permanently or look into below the knee amputation and use a prosthetic limb. I chose the wheelchair, it’s not the best leg in the world but it’s mine and I probably wouldn’t be on my feet much longer anyway. I don’t think I had realised how restricted my left arm and spine made me until I couldn’t just jump out of the wheelchair or climb in the same way as before. I knew my hand restricted me using a knife and fork but didn’t really take on board its limitations until I came up against obstacles.

I started going to Maggies Manchester November 2017 with my friend to support her as her mum was being treated at the Christie and she thought it may be good for me too because I had had a tough couple of years. On our first day we joined a craft session with Lucy.

I’m so pleased that Sue agreed to become the first Dab Hands portraiture subject. She is such a star! Thanks Sue!

Notes on plans that are afoot…

-I spoke recently to Prof. Simon Kay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Kay), consultant plastic surgeon at Leeds. He has performed the first UK full hand transplants and is also Director of Medicine at The Thackray Medical Museum. He will be putting me in touch with some of his patients so I may request that they become portrait subjects.

-I have also spoken to Donald Sammut, hand surgeon and artist (based in Bath) about his use of drawing in his practice. He speaks beautifully about 'the dance of the hands' (see the first bit of https://youtu.be/a9m35utiPd0?t=90 ) and he’s happy to be involved with the project’s engagement programme, talking to medical students or the general public. He suggested that the project needs more movement of the hand so am considering working on a drawn animation. I will be painting his hands as he makes a drawing of a patient's hand and will travel to Bath for a seminar/anatomy workshop in February if it goes ahead. Donald has made a programme for BBC4 about the anatomy of the hand which looks fantastic. I am waiting for it to be repeated!  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/5MZvtQvLHd1Q8zyMD38wrJl/hand-surgeon-donald-sammut

-I was contacted by a recently qualified medical student Shahjahan Aslam, who is an aspiring hand surgeon and was Student Chair of Surgery at Stoke. He is very enthusiastic about being involved and very happy to help however he can. He will teach me suturing and hopefully help with the micro-embroidery workshops and the 'in recovery' painting (see below). He told me that the largest international conference for Hand Surgery takes place in June 2022 in London (good timing for the exhibition!) https://www.ifssh-ifsht2022.co.uk/

- 'In Recovery' painting: I’m thinking about the outrage that occurred when some of my paintings which were on display in a hospital were punched through by a disgruntled patient. Imagining the internal outrage when one’s actual hand is damaged. I’m thinking about making a beautiful portrait of a hand, damaging it then working with both conservators and medical students to repair it with surgical and conservation techniques. The process will be documented with photography/film and shown alongside the finished, 'repaired' piece.

-I’m trying to learn the anatomy of the hand. It’s hard.

All very enjoyable but looking forward to talking to people in the Manchester Museum as I work. Am gathering fascinating snippets from all of the above which need sharing!