Mum to show art by son who starved after benefits slashed
Pride: Jill Gant with some of her son Mark Wood’s artwork
Friday 26 June 2015 News
by Pete Hughes, Reporter covering Abingdon and Wantage, South Oxford and Kennington. Call me on 01865 425431
NEWLY discovered artwork by a man who starved to death after his benefits were wrongly cut is to go on public display from tomorrow.
The works by Mark Wood were uncovered by his mother as she went through the task of clearing his house.
As she went through his belongings, Jill Gant discovered her son’s full collection of paintings, cartoons, writings and musical compositions.
She is now putting some of the work on show at Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate’s, in an exhibition entitled The Spirit of Nature, which opens tomorrow.
Mrs Gant, 76, said she wanted to achieve her son’s goal of raising awareness of global threats to the natural environment.
She said: “His driving force was nature: he loved animals, wildlife, the landscape, and had a brilliant imagination.”
He moved out of London in 2002, she said, because he could no longer stand the pollution there.
Mrs Gant said: “Although he was very intellectually able, he wasn’t able to manage his own life.
“The main problem was he had extreme social embarrassment. It was almost as if he had a skin missing, he was always aware of other people looking at him.”
Unable to function in the outside world, Mr Wood created his own, painting landscapes from other worlds, and writing fantasy stories about humanity finding other planets to live on when the Earth’s natural resources run out.
Mrs Gant said her son had inadvertently sabotaged his last benefits assessment meeting, by downplaying just how bad his condition was. He was left with just £40 a week to live on, and a crushing fear of the outside world.
When he died from malnutrition, he weighed just over five stone.
Mrs Gant and Mr Wood’s sister Cathie have since campaigned to make the benefits system fairer for those with mental health problems.
Mrs Gant added: “His artwork is continuing to make an impact for good in the world.”
The free exhibition will be open from 10am to 4.30pm from tomorrow to Saturday, July 18.
Postcards and some artwork are available for sale from the gallery shop and from ecoartistmarkwood.org.uk , with proceeds going to mental health charity Mind.
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