Art
Generating Wellbeing
This work illustrates how wellbeing is generated. It features the wellbeing economy's "make and take" equivalent to the monetary economy's "supply and demand".
Noteworthy is the slave driver's role sitting in the shade, screaming at everyone that they are not working hard enough; the horse refusing to drink water, the work's metaphor for wellbeing; and the woman in distress not realising that drinking water will deliver the wellbeing she fruitlessly seeks.
The Evolution of Humanity
Humanity has become a dominant species by supercharging our "survival of the fittest" evolution with an unparalleled ability to enfuse. This is the ability to combine our skills and efforts to create a higher-level entity. Enfusion allows us to evolve without having to wait for the random "survival of the fittest" adaptations that take generations to develop.
We also have an equal ability to self-sabotage the advancement of our species through defusion, a propensity to greed and self-destruction that undoes the evolutionary prowess of enfusion.
This artwork presents an overview of the opportunities for us and our leaders to choose the wellbeing of mankind over the short-term, self-interested personal gains of populism that is so damaging to the future of Mankind.
The Road to Peace
Culture plays a core role in determining the quality of life of members of society. This series of four images shows the impact on quality of life during the four-stage progression of society from anarchy to harmony.
The tiger's disposition represents the way power is applied to maintain control. The quality of light and colour in each image conveys the quality of life experienced by members of society.
The Colour of Hate
Hate begets violence.
We attach to a colour to attack people of another colour. Yet we are all the same colour. Each of us is a colour in the rainbow of humanity.
When we attack people from the LGBTQ+ community or any other community, our efforts destroy precious lives. No one involved in the fight has time to harvest the apples, that fall rotten to the ground.
Collective Choices
As a society, we choose how we relate with people within and outside our communities.
If we choose alienation and division, almost everyone suffers, not just the target of our venom but also the people we choose to join in hatred. Anyone who lives within a divided, hateful society expends energy attacking others which could be spent more productively. Anyone can become a target at any time. Conversely, if we choose to see the best in people, we can share in each other's joy. We spend our time more productively. Life is better.
Collective choice is just that. It is the balance of the cumulative attitudes from the choices each of us makes individually. Our quality of life is largely dependent on whether, collectively, we choose inclusion or division.
Incel Farm
The misogynistic group of men who identify as INCELs hate women. Their biggest complaint is they find it impossible to form proper relationships with women. They lay all the blame on the women.
This artwork highlights the self-destructive nature of their actions. By attacking women, they make it all but certain they will never achieve what they want from life.
Loneliness Seeks Company
Loneliness is becoming prevalent in all quarters of society. Being lonely is not the same as being alone. Many physically isolated people feel lonely. So too do many people who feel disconnected from the people around them.
The scourge of loneliness will only be solved when we work out how to help those who are physically isolated to meet with people and those who are emotionally isolated to reconnect with the people in their lives.
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
The Essence of Morality
Morality is the engine that drives civilisation. It brings people together in mutual support. It is central to our ability to live and work together to flourish.
The image conveys the three golden values that drive morality: trust, coordination and reciprocity. The threads of emotional and spiritual connection weave into the safety net of trust, everyone coordinates their efforts towards the common goal. Everyone basks equally in the light of opportunity, wisdom and hope that they create as one.
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
The American Dream
The American Dream offers everyone the chance of success, regardless of their background or heritage. Its reality is a complete betrayal with glass ceilings erected throughout society, physical and social pollution, segregation reimagined and flourishing anew and a wealthy class intent on destroying any people or ideas that threaten their supremacy with incitement to fairness and equality.
The current state is better than autocracy. And it is easily fixed. But if not, autocracy will surely return and democracy's net freedoms and benefits will vanish forever.
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
Joy to the Power of Two
This work celebrates joy.
When two people share material wealth, it is divided amongst each of them. A fair share of £10 between two people becomes £5 for each.
By contrast, when you share time with others, the joy it brings is multiplied by the power of the number of people involved. Each person gains more together than any one can alone.
So let there be joy to the enfusing power of two people sharing their love and respect with each other.
The Greater Sin
The argument about assisted dying hangs on a single question. Is it more important to preserve life at any cost or to accept that someone can make their own decision about whether to end their own unrelenting and incurable pain?
At its heart, the question hangs on whether preserving the life of a dying person in pain is a greater sin than condemning them to remain for eterninty in torture.
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
The Radiance of Eternity
The Baha'i faith believes that unity is the radiance of eternity. It believes that when we work in harmony, society flourishes. When we are ruled instead by greed, self-interest and hate, destruction and death become our destiny.
This artwork illustrates the fairly simple idea that when we all make hay, we eat a whole lot better than when we set fire to each other's fields.
Freedom of Choice
How free is our freedom of choice when our options are controlled by others?
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
Skimming the Milk
Skimming the Milk highlights inequality in society and the means of maintaining it. Economic wealth is generated collectively. A symptom of a profoundly unjust sharing of an economy's collective wealth is where the ethics of linking work with reward is promoted by the people who control wealth allocations and who fail to apply those ethics to the level of reward they acquire.
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
The Guilty Bystander
There is no such thing as an innocent bystander.
If you are in a crowd witnessing an attack, what can safely you do to avoid becoming part of the problem?
The nature, causes and solutions to the Bystander Effect are explored in this article.
Bite and Be Bit
The ugly face of hate pits individuals against each other, forging a destructive chain in which each person subjugates the next. When we normalise hate and aggression, we undermine those with whom we share our lives and workplaces, validating the same hate and aggression aimed squarely at us. Facing the wrong direction, those who bite soon discover they are being bitten.
However, when we unite in defiance against oppression and exploitation, we confront the wolves at our heels. In doing so, we reclaim control from those who would exploit our anxieties and fears, forging a path toward a fairer and happier future. The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
Pandora's Box
The mother of the conspiracy theory, Pandora is at constant risk of abuse and rape. She concocts a story about demons and spirits in her box to dissuade men from attacking her. They are unsure and surround the box, driven in equal part by lust and fear. Their weapons are trained at the demons. When one shoots, another dies. Thus, conspiracy theorists evidence their lies born of the seeds of hate. Pandora's box has unleashed the demons that resist containment for as long as today's aggressors sew fear and hate, in equal parts.
Life
It is important for us to understand the nature of life because we are part of life itself. If we a part of it, we are invested in sustaining it, This is why climate change is of such an existential nature for us.
Life is the emergence of order from chaos. We need to retain the majesty of its order to maintain our own future.
Pursuit of Happiness
You don't achieve happiness in its raw pursuit. Happiness emerges as a natural bi-product of your body's reward for you doing the right thing by it. Empty happiness, experience of pleasure isolated from its natural state, feels enjoyable but hollow. The problem with pursuit of happiness for its own sake is it opens us to manipulation by others. In particular, commercial organisations pile in to sell us a fake happiness for exclusively profit motives.
The irony is that we do not need to pursue happiness to find it. Of course we need a sufficient material items to surive comfortably. But we need positive, reaffirming social connnection with others. And we need stimulation. Pursue these goals and natural happiness takes delight in finding us first.
Moses
"Moses" depicts a fictional painting of Moses watching the children of Israel pass into the promised land, the land he has dreamt of his whole life, the land he has just been told he will never live to see.
It tells the story of personal growth, adulthood, fulfilment and leadership. The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
Forever Ukraine
As Russia targets its bombs at Ukrainian buildings, it targets life itself. As the majestic Ukrainian people rise from the rubble, their spirit flows and scatters as seeds in the wind, growing and flourishing wherever they land.
Wherever Ukrainian mothers stand, nurturing the Ukrainian spirit in their hearts and the hearts of their children, they embody the spirit of Ukraine. Wherever Ukrainians stand proud, the glory of Ukraine will forever flourish.
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
Bubble Vision
In our increasingly polarised world, we live in our own cosy bubbles. We lose compassion or interest in the wellbeing of our neighbours. We become blind to the manipulation of the social and economic environment by the people who control it.
When we become wilfully blind to the suffering of our neighbours, we become exposed to exactly the same harm as befalls them. And we never see it until it is too late, when the bubble is burst.
The Injustice of Rape
In 2022, the conviction rate for rape in the UK is most likely less than 1%.
UK justice makes Lady Justice blind and women victims mute, objectified and terrorised by the justice system. Whilst the rapist causes immediate distress, failed justice extends and magnifies the suffering for every day of its failure.
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
The Fallacy of Oppression
We are a social species. We have developed evolutionary advantage from collaborating with each other. This is the basis of our astounding economic and technological advance. When we oppress parts of society, we compromise our advantage, undermining our security and quality of life..
Damaging Teachers ...
Student mental wellbeing and preparedness for adult life have probably never been lower. When it comes to education, the government says one thing in public (that it is improving standards). But behind closed doors, it does exactly the opposite (decimating education by cutting funding, making unattainable demands and terrorising teachers into submission).
The impact of government hypocrisy in education is explored in this article and a proposal to restructure education is set out in this article.
Cut Down Poverty
There is a link between the level of shame we put on people and their level of poverty. There is an antidote to shame - community, making people feel welcome. We can help people out of shame by giving them a helping hand in their hour of need. If we want to address poverty, we have to address the shame we heap on others.
The artwork's key themes of the link between shame and poverty are explained and explored in this article.
The Fabric of Love
There are three types of romantic love. The first type of love is Impassioned. It is powerful and energetic. It births the social fabric from which long-term relationships develop. The wild radiation of energy can not last more than a handful of years. The second is Divergent, where one person is more committed than the other. It is destined for misery and failure and helps to explain the high divorce rates. Social fabric can not be woven alone any more than one hand alone can clap. The third type of love is Connected, It is the love of mutual bonding, the love of forever. The fabric factory allows the couple to weave an emotional wrapper that protects and cements their future together through mutual support and respect. How are the threads woven? It's quite natural if we remember how. The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
The Rising Time of MEvolution
The Rising Tide of MEvolution represents the impact of our excessive focus on Me and the disastrous effect is having on the outcomes of the evolution we have engineered that determine our future destiny. It is not too late for us to redirect our cultures to remove the excessively self-interested cancers that eat away at our metaphorical hearts and lungs.
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
Social Media's Selective Vision
When we put our best face forward to our social media feeds, we create an unattainable standard for us to maintain and for our friends to reach. It eats away at the trust and self-belief that underpins every good relationship. What we choose to post may not be quite so social after all.
What is missing in our lives that we idolise so readily this Unsocial Media?
Why Hide Abuse?
Asking the provocative and revealing question, why do victims of abuse feel the need to hide their abuse?
The artwork's key themes are explained and explored in this article.
Beyond Despair
Addressing the despair of someone who is homeless, in poverty or suffering helps to ease their suffering.
Discovering and addressing the cause of despair re-opens the door to life.
The artwork's key themes around the face of hunger are explained and explored in this article.