Strapus by Sue Watt

Title: Strapus
Artist: Sue Watt
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 102 cm x 76 cm 

Sue Watt (b.1970) lives in Cardiff. She is a mother, a carer and a painter. Concept driven, her paintings are an embodiment of her lived-experience as a mother and carer for her son Tom "exploring love, joy, loss, anger, and the strength of will required to help and support a non-verbal young adult with significant disabilities."

"I don’t know if the heron chooses solitude, even in Berger’s recall of two herons circling they remain on opposite sides of the same circle. My son’s life has enforced solitude. I try my best to expand his world and give him a sense of belonging but the world outside is rarely open or accepting of him, running at a different beat far removed from that of the heron’s wing.I am above all else his mother and so we focus on the small insular parts of our daily life rather than the outside world and although solitary, I remain here and try to paint it.

"At Christmas…..

"A light sensory show
But only for 'normal people'
You make too much noise. 
And are asked to leave.
Because even here you are excluded
The sensory experience is not designed for you
It is to indulge those whose ‘normal’ lives are not enough
I am too tired of people and far too sad to complain
Our world continues to shrink"