Humans of Leeds

“My dad was a pilot for Gulf Air, based in Bahrain.  My mum is English and she worked for the same airline.  She moved there over thirty years ago.  And that’s where they met.  Over the years they’ve adapted each other’s cultures into their own lives.  But for me it was always difficult to relate to both sides of my dual nationality.  I grew up in Bahrain.  When I was younger I wanted to relate more to my English side.  I went to an international school where everyone was either British or some other foreign nationality.  There were no locals.  But recently I’ve come to regret that.  Not being able to speak Arabic for example.  I feel it devalues my identity somehow.  A lot of my dad’s family speak English but the older generation don’t, like my grandmother.  I can’t communicate with her which is really sad.  I go back whenever I can.  And I’m exploring the British and Arab polarities of my split identity through my art practice.  Hoping I can associate myself back with the Arab side of myself.”

I’ve always been an ardent Leeds United supporter.  When I was walking to a match one day, I had the idea to incorporate the football club into my art.  I thought it would be nice for kids to see them on the way to a game.  And it was a chance to learn more about the club.  Some of the boxes got defaced and vandalised, which upset me at the time.  But the response of the Leeds fans and the club restored my faith.  I'm extremely thankful to everyone who supported me.  And now I’ve been commissioned for these murals at Leeds Market.  I could have never imagined anything like this happening to me.  Some amazing positives have come out of some horrible negatives.”

“We were given a brief to make a piece of work inspired by the railways.  I was looking at how women started to work on the railways during the war.  As most of the men were called away.  I was into embroidery and fabric work.  I bought some second hand dresses  (I liked the idea of them having some history).  On the hem I inscribed jobs the women were doing: train guards, drivers and mechanics.  The idea being that embroidery being seen as feminine.  But in reality they were doing what the men did.  Out of thirty in the class, the railway museum chose to buy two pieces for their permanent collection, one of which was mine.  It was an achievement I couldn’t have predicted a few years previous.  I had a tough time at school.  I stopped going for about four years.  I was isolated for a long time.  Back then they didn’t acknowledge mental health in children.  I was told it was teenage angst.  I took comfort in the books and articles I found.  Prozac Nation was one.  I also remember reading an interview about Sarah Silverman.  She described having depression during her teen years and that gave me some comfort that it was real and it happens to other people too.”

“I was working at the age of fifteen.  I was still at school but I started as an apprentice plasterer part-time.  I found out that I was allergic to the dust and had to give it up.  Which was a shame really because I enjoyed it.  And it was good money.  I went into working in retail, then security and then counters at supermarkets.  I was never one for sitting at home, idle.  I was brought up to work.  Even periods when I wasn’t working I’d go out looking for odd jobs: cleaning drains, gutters, gardens.  There’s plenty of work out there, you just have to want it and go looking for it.  Before I had this job, I was on a zero hours contract security job.  It was unpredictable and stressful.  Most of the time they couldn’t get the staff they needed.  So when they gave me work it was very long hours.  People wouldn’t stick around because there was no loyalty.  Working on and off without a routine wasn’t good and eventually I couldn’t take it no more.  That’s when I found this job and I’m a lot happier.”

“The first time I noticed something was wrong was when I visited my great grandmother’s home.  She would always give me a chocolate biscuit when I went to see her, ever since I was little.  But this time she didn’t.  Then other incidents started happening.  She started leaving the front door unlocked.  And she’d leave the house randomly and we’d get a phone call from her neighbours.  She’d remember me but when I was much younger.  She hated people helping her.  She was very strong willed and independent.  She had grown up during the war and had brought up her whole family.  She even looked after me and my cousins.; she was a real matriarch of the family.  She was 95 when she died.  It had been horrible seeing someone go through that.  I decided to go into medical research so I could help people in that situation.  Even if it’s not to stop the dementia but to help people suffering from it.”

“I used to rock climb about five times a week.  That was until I damaged a tendon in my finger.  It led to me slacklining during the winter months.  To keep fit, warm and be outside.  But in the spring I wanted something to do whilst sat under a tree.  I discovered a book called, ‘The Little Book of Whittling’ in a small independent bookshop.  I bought a letherman knife and started making letter openers and small squirrels and chickens from the book.  I was hooked.  I was working in retail at the time.  I’d done an arts degree but my creativity was non-existent.  So I quit my job and started carving.  I had saved enough for me to work on crafting for three months.  A few months later I went to Spoonfest and met the most amazing people.  That’s when I started carving spoons and now I’m very much a full-time greenwood crafts person.  I used to feel like an alien - alone and worthless.  But through this journey I’ve been able to reconnect.  Spoons has taken me all over the country and further.  It’s not been easy.  And often it’s not easy to create a life in this way.  Especially as an independent, making a living.  However it’s a way of life I chose, it’s not just a job.”

“I was on a deliberative downward spiral.  I wasn’t trying to kill myself.  But at the same time I didn’t care if it happened.  Drinks and drugs was a big part of my life.  I was a roadie for punk bands.  People think it’s easy but it was hard work and not at all glamorous.  I’d travel across the country.  I’d be away for months at a time.  I found myself in positions where I had to keep working.  It was relentless.  And I did it for years and years on end.  Eventually it caught up with me.  I fell into a massive state of depression.  The turning point was meeting my wife.  We had a collective moan at a Facebook post about Judge Dredd.  Both being comic book fans we commented on how the comic version of the character never takes his helmet off.  And within 20 minutes Sylvester Stallone has shown his face in the film.  We started to chat online and found we were going through similar things.  We both saved each other.”

“I went to a good high school.  First year there, I was what they used to call at that time, a ‘Swot’.  I enjoyed learning.  I was doing everything right.  But bullies exist everywhere.  I resisted it for a long time.  I wasn’t soft, I could defend myself if I wanted.  But I chose not to, I chose to learn.  The bullying persisted and after years of abuse it turned my way of thinking.  It brought out another side of me.  I started fighting the bullies.  I got into trouble.  I even got suspended a few times. It turned me from a good student into the complete opposite.  I finished school but left without any qualifications.  I never got over that.”

“I lost my mum when I was really young.  It was a strange age to lose her as I didn’t really know her.  And don’t have many memories.  But it’s definitely shaped me as a person.  She had breast cancer.  My aunt had it as well.  It’s a gene called BRCA2 which is passed through our family.  I’ve got to go for a test in a few weeks and it’s nerve racking.”

“I was a typical twenty-something.  Partying, wild and chasing girls.  I was pursuing my own happiness.  What I thought I had to do to achieve that.  But I was very selfish about it.  When my relationship broke down my whole belief system collapsed.  Everyone’s built on some kind of belief, whether it’s based on religion or something else.  My whole life turned inside out.  I was doing a film making course, which I ended up dropping out of.  What I lost was all the constructs of ego and personality.  All the things I assigned to myself to be that person.  It was a horrible thing to go through.  But I chose to continue on.  And by the end of it I was left an empty shell.  You can think of that in a negative way.  But I see it as something positive.  Because I was able to build myself back up.  A much more content person.”

“It was my dream to go to art college.  Since I was thirteen it’s all I wanted and thought about.  Two days before I was to leave home for university my mum passed away.  She had cancer and had been ill a long time.  That’s where adulthood started for me, quite dramatically.  I was close to my mum, but nothing was going to stop me from going.  I pushed the grief away.  I had to, in order to live my life.  I was young and wanted to have fun.  I didn’t want to be miserable starting this new life.  So I bottled it.  It might not have been the healthiest thing but it’s what I did.  And not having my mum later in life was significant.  When I was pregnant and when I had my daughter.  It had a lasting effect.  Interestingly, it all led me down a path later in life.  After I had therapy, I decided to take up counselling.  I learnt I had an aptitude for it.  So I became a therapist and work with young people.”

mooneyj.github.io

“I love dogs.  We recently bought some French Bulldogs and they’re like nothing we’ve had before.  They’re so funny, but they fart a lot.  They can clear a room.  We’ve got ten dogs in total.  They’re all small; Chihuahuas and Pomeranians.  I grew up with big dogs though.  We always had them inside the house.  But my husband’s parents kept them outside.  Which I thought was cruel.”

It’s funny because while there was some satisfaction in my job.  The things I’m most proud of aren’t to do with work.  I knew an Indonesian family where the father became HIV positive.  He was reluctant to do anything about it.  I told him they had effective treatments and took him to hospital and got him seen to.  He was given medication and started getting better almost immediately.  Around the same time his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.  So for the second time that week I went to hospital with her.  She fully recovered.  They had a son; an incredible bright young boy.  I thought about what would happen to him if they both died.  They were a poor family, struggling in so many ways.  He’d have no opportunities, so I paid for all their treatments.  Unfortunately, the father died later of some other complications.  But the mum and son are still around and doing well.”

I would take myself off into woodlands and fields as an escape.  A sanctuary and stillness that allowed my headspace to heal and hear my own voice.  Childhood isn’t a time I look on fondly, but at the same time I wouldn’t change it either.  It’s given me a lot of strength and a closeness to nature.  The first thing I did when I got to Leeds six years ago was to look up all the nearby green spaces.  Walking around them has helped me through many difficulties since.  You can’t wish for a different past without wishing you were a different person now.  I don’t feel like I’ve been unlucky, we all have to learn life’s lessons at various stages.  I’m just glad I’ve got those lessons over and done with.”

“I am a priest monk.  I’m on an exchange programme from Serbia.  I spend most of my time living in monasteries so it’s nice to be in a vibrant city.  I’ve had my faith tested on many occasions.  Once I travelled to a monastery in a very remote region.  The people who were supposed to come didn’t make it.  I didn’t expect that I’d be alone.  It was night time when I arrived there.  The monastery was completely new to me.  There was no phone and I had no transport.  I was all alone.  Fear got the better of me.  I had all kinds of thoughts.  About demons and things.  I couldn’t rest or sleep.  I sat on my bed waiting for the sun to come up.  Afterwards I felt it was a test of my patience and faith.  And maybe I was too far from God.”

“I was born in Zambia.  After my father died my mum made the decision to move here.  I was three years old.  It was just the two of us.  She’s told me it was less of a choice, more something she had to do for me.  She was a single mother and made the most practical decision.  That’s not to say it wasn’t easy for her.  Leaving her family.  And my family are still in Zambia so we’re separated.  She settled in the Calder valley.  That’s where I grew up.  I was quite disassociated living there.  There was no one there that looked like me.  And I had a lot of negative experiences.  Especially as I was made to feel I didn’t belong.  I had a great group of friends at school though.  But I would make huge efforts to look like everyone around me.  Like relaxing my hair.  Eventually I realised that I couldn’t compete.  And I had to stop pretending who I was.”