'Pulse'
Acrylic on Canvas
90 x 122cm
2018

"A single vibration or short burst of sound, electric current, light, or other unidentified wave, the first sign of life within all living organisms is an impulse; a sudden strong and unreflective urge or desire to act."

From the turn of the century there had been a cross-party consensus emerging for many years on introducing a National Health Service of some description in the UK, however when prime minister Clement Attlee's Labour Party won the 1945 election, the campaign form the NHS finally took place finally launching in 1948 to counteract some of the devastation of World War II

"The institution which more than any other unites our nation".

It’s three core principles... the NHS needed to meet the needs of everyone, that it be free at the point of delivery, and that it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay.

70 years on public sector funding across the board is being slashed by our government. Cuts to bursaries for trainee nurses and midwives have driven down the numbers of students applying for health degrees whilst the UK’s decision to Brexit has put off increasing numbers of desperately needed medical staff from coming to the UK to care for our sick and elderly.

The government’s mismanagement of the NHS workforce has left huge numbers of posts unfilled putting patients at risk. A series of pay restraint, cuts and negligence from ministers have created enormous staffing shortages and as a result workers are stretched to exhaustion, over worked and under paid.

The NHS in England as a whole was operating short of almost 93,000 staff during 2017-18. 35,794 nurses and 9,982 doctors...

I am constantly inspired by my sister Ella Baker a psychiatric nurse working for the national health service. She reminds me of the importance of our duty for care for one another through her natural compassionate impulse working tirelessly to benefit others. As I traverse the world experiencing the best that humanity has to offer in ways of celebrations, festivals and creativity she dedicates her life to healing the most vulnerable and damaged people to see the light....

In Buddhism, Bodhisattva is Sanskrit for anyone who has generated Bodhicitta, a compassionate enlightened mind. A bodhisattva is aware of Nirvana... the transcendental state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, however stays within this reality to help others reach it.

Buddhists believe Nirvana is the real reality above all, and through the road to compassion Nirvana is achieved. In a world economy fuelled by war, profit, greed and hatred, this is our ultimate goal.

This painting is a homage to the empaths that hold the world together, the Bodhisattvas of our time that through their benevolent actions onto others remind us what we are all here for... each other.