Reality, Southsea Common, June 1977

If this picture seems ominous or threatening to you then I've achieved what I set out to do.  Southsea Common was near where I lived in Portsmouth.  I remember living on the South Coast of England, the walks, days out in Brighton and breathing the fresh air.  My mum finished her degree in June 1977.  During the lead up to June I was told about our impending move to Manchester, or more specifically Longsight in Manchester.  Longsight was nothing like Portsmouth.  Before I came up to Manchester I always had the stereotypical view of the North of England as grim, rather like the opening credits that were shown on the soap opera Coronation Street.  Where we ended up living in Longsight actually turned out just as bad as I feared.  It was grim, back alleys, smogs so thick that the buses stopped running because they couldn't see where they were going and standing outside made your feet disappear.

I also had a sense of wonder at what was actually real.  I believed that I was the only real person in the world while I lived in Portsmouth.  Everything else was fake/a robot/not alive.  Whether this sense of alone in the world was a manifestation of autism I don't know.  Reality on Southsea Common was me and an unwelcome move up to the North of England.  Sometimes reality is not what we want or expect.

Reality, Southsea Common, June 1977, oil painting on board 120x100cm