Exhibition Walcot Mortuary Chapel Bath July 8-14 2013

Once again in 2013, I will be exhibiting some of my photographs with our group of artists : Rose Davies, Melanie Ezra, Kara Seaman, Owen Martin and our guest artist from Bath, Jeni Wood. We are known as Commensalis, which derives from a Medieval Latin word meaning working together in an informal way towards a common goal or end. The location of our exhibition will once again be in Walcot Mortuary Chapel, Bath. The chapel is owned by Bath City Council and rented out for use by artists for visual and performance art events. This year we have decided to raise some funding from a crowdfunding source Sponsume.com and to date we have reached 50% of our target of £750. It isn't easy for artists to obtain official funding in the current economic climate and we are very appreciative of the support from our generous backers. If you would be kind enough to support us, please go here to vist our donation site on Sponsume.com. We are really appreciative of all support we receive!

Anniversaries

On a very wet (and snowy) day on 25 April 1981, Christina and I got married. We hadn't rushed into it by any means - we met while we were both students in London back in 1976 (the year of the hot summer and drought). We had a ground floor flat in Southfields, London SW18 right opposite a listed art deco building and a paint factory run by a company called Ault and Wibourg. The flat had one bedroom, a living room and a room at the back which we made into a kitchen. As there was no inside toilet and bathroom, we were lucky enough to get a home improvement grant from the Greater London Council to put in a bathroom in the middle of the flat. We lived there until 1987. We didn't spend a bomb on wedding photographs - a friend of mine was just starting out as a photographer so we asked him to take some colour and black and white. A lot of people remarked how much like my grandfather I looked - once a Jones always a Jones so the saying goes!

My grandparents were married in the St Mary's district of Southampton in June 1914. Thomas Richard Jones was born in Aberystwyth in 1886. He was a Welsh speaker and only learnt English when he joined the merchant navy and moved to Southampton where he met my grandmother, Agnes Gertrude Wilson who came from a large family (many of whom were in domestic service). They actually lived in Bevois Street, Southampton where many families who had members serving as crew lost on RMS Titanic were living. It must have been a worrying time to be serving at sea just after that disaster and just before the outbreak of the 1914-18 war. My grandfather served on the Atlantic convoys during World War 2 in 1940-43 and that also must have been a difficult time for the family with the constant threat of torpedo from German submarines and warships like the infamous Bismarck.