Who is going to save this world? We, the artists, are!

I have just had the great good fortune to hear a lecture by Emeritus Professor Pauline Murphy of the University of Ullster. This amazing woman is deep in the struggles of educating and empowering women as well as working class men of poverty through adult education with EU funding with action based research projects of education and establishing partnerships to develop that further.

People can tap into their great inner strength when other people believe in and have higher hopes for them.

This is why we need education, art, voices. Mentors and those who have gone before us, which is why I love doing my podcast interviews, I always learn and get inspired by the possibilities and others strength of character and fighting against the odds, of dreaming big and taking action.

As Professor Murphy points out the UN itself has recognised that only by fully having women in all their negotiations can they realise a lasting peace in local, regional and national situations and in UN Resolution 1325 it stares full involvement of women in all UN Peace Keeping & Security force meetings and the vital need of protecting women and girls from sexual violence. Of course with the recent kidnapping of young girls in Nigeria and the shooting of a young girl for daring to go to school there is a long way to go. She also pointed out that to have women to help keep the peace, it needs them to be educated and empowered, to have voices. The world and it’s peace needs women to be educated and have confidence.

She mentioned these heart-breaking UN statistics that kill and rile me every time I hear them:

Women are the majority population on this earth, (not men) yet women work two thirds if the working hours, earn one tenth of the income and owe less than one hundredth of the world’s property. They also comprise most of the world’s illiterate.

This KILLS me because I know I am fortunate to have had a great education and have had the confidence and freedom to go after my dreams, I have done lots of adult education and found some mentors (& some haters) who have meant I have somehow gone after what I want some of the time. Again though I find myself thinking that perhaps my greatest single character quality is a complete stubbornness and unwillingness to hear others people negativity about my choices and my dreams. It may drive those who don’t think I have talent mad but to quote Streisand ‘don’t rain on my parade’ and quite frankly even if you do I have a very large titanium umbrella and I haven’t noticed.

However I now look at a couple of bad habits of mine, procrastination & yep self doubt on my own creativity at times and Professor Murphy has made me mad at myself. The world needs me, an educated woman with a voice and choices, to not waste my life in idleness and self-doubt but to make the world a different better place. Less pointless dating and book reading, excess drinking and eating & more work from my heart that I ‘ship’ into the world. Art needs an audience to engage with it, be it a small pub gig where you sing your new song or a gallery for new sculptors.

I used to be work in the City as a bond dealer and I now have little time for politics but personal politics (with a small p, as Professor Murphy described it) is important. That this incredible woman with 4 children herself is fighting the fight to help us all have a brighter world by setting up courses for everyone to educate and empower themselves makes me look at my life and re-determine to make a difference in my own way.

Whilst I am not looking to join a political party I know I need to do what I can for those who don’t have a voice. The wonderful news is I am an artiste, I am born to express and communicate, I have trained to inspire and uplift people. Of course dear reader (sorry to get all Mills & Boon on you) the same goes for you. We creatives have a wonderful duty, mission, calling to express and allow our art to be heard, seen, debated and appreciated or reviled. We have this wonderful opportunity that so many don’t get through lack of opportunity, confidence and poverty. So as I embark on the next section of my new solo show I am walking less in fear and far more in urgent need to be open, honest, truthful, to connect with my audiences.

Richard Mosse ‘The Enclave’

I am reminded of the great Richard Mosse ‘The Enclave’ exhibition that has finished Sunday that was free in the NCP Brewer Street car park in a Soho, the very car park I would park  our purple convertible Porsche wide bodied turbo 911 in my City years.  Not only are the pictures stunningly beautiful (the main picture and the ones in this post are all his and copyright remains his!)) but his photography and films, all based from several trips to the war-torn Republic of Congo show the horror of war bad rifles in small uneducated communities with dead bodies lying on the streets and witch doctors doing traditional spirit protection ceremonies over young women clad in military uniforms in the midst of beautiful forests which the artist had subsequently coloured in blood red. Wonderful heart felt and heart rending work, it is vital for us to change this world we live In.

Professor Murphy spoke about, having done much research over the years, of women’s lack of confidence, of in poor areas even within the Western world women feel less empowered, incapable and don’t feel they deserve further education.

She spoke stirringly of women’s ‘internalised sexism’ of that constant inner voice she has found with women who believe the lies that they are stupid, that men should have first pick of the jobs and that once they have children they have even less right to continue to educate themselves.

Professor Murphy talked about how if you are trying to empower people, it is impossible if you are not involved with them. You need dialogues, honest communication, inspiration such as community education can provide. Her lecture was given at a SGI lecture series and she talked about how Daisaku Ikeda, President of the SGI, the Nichiren  Buddhist Soka Gakkai (value creating society) about him being the only philosopher she knows who actually puts his philosophy into action. Daisaku Ikeda is a Buddhist leader, peacebuilder, a prolific writer, poet, educator and founder of a number of cultural, educational and peace research institutions around the world. The SGI district discussion meetings, the sense of personal responsibility and the constant encouragement to create value in your own life, to never give up the struggle no matter what obstacles lie in the way. Ikeda’s constant travelling, dialogue with world leaders & great thinkers of all faiths, the Ikeda peace proposals submitted every year to the UN without fail, this constant fight forward is what we all need to do with our own work, life and art.

So with this in mind I hope you find time this week to start dreaming big and taking the next action step in your current creative project. It is back to that wonderful song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon. Imagine that through your art you can change the world and go out and do it.