Working with workers

Or should I say helping give a voice to people who aren’t being heard?

There are many things I love about my work. In the past I have created illustrations for prints to sell in shops. I have created family portraits and house portraits. Although I enjoyed those in the past (and very occassionally take on the private commission here and there) it is the work that can possible help a person that matters to me most.

Last weekend I worked with Worker Support Centre talking to workers in agriculture about what it is really like for them to work here in the UK. I communicated with the workers through a translater, although one did ask me directly about the stars on my tattoo. For my illustration work, I was given the task of drawing their experiences without using words. It was a trick to draw what they had been promised in contrast to their lived experience.

This work is currenty in progress as I have extended the contract to include editing to ensure that the messages are clear. They need to be clear to the workers and they need to be clear for those that can make decisions for the workers to make their time here a better experience.