You don’t need to justify yourself to me. In my family, the women always worked; my mother was the breadwinner, and I’ve always been the same – alongside being a housewife and who knows what else. The most important thing is that we do what we’re good at and find fulfilment in it; that’s what matters most in a relationship and a family. I would have loved to have had a creative parent, like some children did at primary school. I know one was a potter, another wove reeds and did fretwork. Nobody thought that was strange or inferior. All the pupils learnt these things, just like etching, playing the recorder, singing and drawing. I miss schools like that these days. How can you be creative if you never get the chance to try it out?
I think it’s also been drummed into us that art is inferior and that it’s only art if it meets a certain set of criteria.
I believe there’s an art market coming up in June where the painting group will definitely be present. I plan to be there and we’ll see if I can get people excited and, of course, reap any potential benefits.

It’s a shame none of those representatives took up the challenge; I certainly would have. A real salesperson can sell anything, no matter what it is (as an employer once said to me when I was providing information about a care home. It’s true, I could have sold a load of rubbish back then too. What a salesperson does need is enthusiasm. If Alex can really paint, he’d be the right person to sell art. Unfortunately, he seems more dead than alive, and he won’t get very far with that hammer.

By the way, I wanted to ask you if there’s a logo for Free Art, or is it ‘Artists and the Entire Population’?