Eye - 9 May 2014

From delighted eyes to hooting Meetings

John Perkin delights eye at Friends House

The highly distinctive paintings of Quaker artist John Perkin will be turning many an eye this summer at Friends House.  A small retrospective exhibition, organised by the Quaker Arts Network (QAN), of the late artist (1927-2012) is on show between 12 May and 10 August just outside the George Fox room on the third floor of the building.  Linda Murgatroyd, of QAN, said: ‘John is best known in Quaker circles for his paintings of Meeting for Worship, many of which are now hanging in Meeting houses or other Quaker buildings.

‘This little exhibition shows a wider range of John’s work. It is a joyful body of work in a simple, colourful style that expressed what John called his “Quaker insights” as well as the beauty of life,’ she added.

‘QAN is delighted to have been able to organise this show, in collaboration with Friends House.

‘It’s the first such exhibition and we hope that many people will be able to enjoy it in the coming months’.

The impressive exhibition demonstrates John Perkin’s style and how he simplified his subject matter, making wonderful use of colour and pattern, to express a sense of what is going on beyond the visible.

Toilet tales

Mary Morris, of the Friends House Moscow British Committee, contacted Eye with the tale of when an unconventional use of toilet paper tickled a Russian Friend.

‘Our Friend Peter Dyson, of Friends House Moscow, writes from St Petersburg about “selling happiness”: “Olga and I met two women in the shopping centre the other day with toilet rolls around their necks… and they looked so happy we asked them what they were doing… they said they were selling “hope” and “happiness”… and drew flowers on their toilet rolls and sold them to us for five roubles each! What a bargain!”’

And that’s not the only loo-based news to reach Eye’s ear recently.

As part of the refurbishment of Friends House, a number of toilets have been donated to a project in Sierra Leone. Galaxy Lion Mountain is an appeal for the Galaxy FM building in Lungi, Sierra Leone.

In an interview with BBC Focus on Africa magazine, the radio station’s founder, Ibrahim S al-Kamara, described how he set up the station in 2006 after visiting the country following his uncle’s death. ‘When I saw the way people were living I said I had to go home and try to help.’

In 2009 he opened a college offering courses for the local communnity, from mass communications and computer software to an HIV/AIDs and reproductive health department.

Meeting was a hoot

Hearts were aflutter following a feathery Friend’s visit to Wilmslow Meeting recently.

Andrew Backhouse got in touch to tell all about the Meeting’s first owl attender:

‘One of our younger members, Libby Cooper, is training it for displays and to get used to people.

‘She was able to bring it to the Children’s Meeting and then into Meeting for Worship and, for some reason, it seems to have been the focus of attention.’

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