Gallery 7

 

Portrait of Owen 48" x 64"

  
 

Owen Lilly

This is a portrait of my friend Owen Lilly. At his request I had the privilege of painting Owen in the last weeks of his life. It is a harrowing image of a man consumed in the final stages of an Asbestos death. Yet for his family and his friends it held no horror, they only saw a man that they loved and admired.

The painting shows Owen lying on his bed, weakened by disease and fatigued by his struggle to survival. He was once a tall, powerful and strong man. His body, wasted and emaciated by the onslaught of the disease, is to long for the bed that he occupies. He is curled up uncomfortably to fit the small space that has now become his world.

 

  
  Once a source of comfort, his bed has transformed into a world of pain. Sheets, light and soft, feel heavy and rough, chaffing and grinding against his skin. I have painted them to look harsh and abrasive, representing how they feel. Owen is viewed from above. The ever present spectre of his final demise symbolised by the darkness that surrounds him, bleeds into the composition. Above him lies an oxygen cylinder...now his source of life…feeding air to his failing lungs. As a result of his disease the nails on his hands and feet have broadened through lack of oxygen. His chest is brutalised, scarred by pain and struggle.  
 

He lies as I first saw him while working on preliminary drawings. I was immediately moved by the pose through which he derived some physical comfort. This is the "Pieta" the pose that you will see in the thousand versions of Christ removed from the Cross…one arm across the body the other hanging by the side...knees to one side, slightly bent. To millions this is an image of sacrifice… with no shame I have used it with this in mind… Owens life was sacrificed not for sin but for profit…. Crucifixion is a lingering death by suffocation ..Asbestos kills in the same way..

Owen did not want his agonies hid from the world..."I want people to see this picture…because for hundreds of thousands of people in the coming years this is an image that they will see....and it will not be Owen Lilly that they see…it will be people that they love dearly. It might help them just a little bit knowing that there are thousands who share their pain and that they are not alone." "These people and their families are going to need help and support..... tell them that asbestos groups will welcome and guide them....they deal with this problem day to day" "I also want the people who are responsible to see this image…. this is not just another statistic …this is a human being ….this is the result of their greed.!"

Owen Lilly was a man of his people who possessed the unshakeable conviction that those who knowingly poisoned their workforce and their families for money would be made to pay dearly for their crimes. He loved 'his' town... Clydebank... its history and its people. It is ironical that a factory placed in its midst should be responsible for his death.

In the simplest terms I can proudly say..."Owen was my friend"... the kind of friend with who you could trade the most outrageous insults, without the slightest offence. I'm warmed when I think of the hours of laughter that we shared and the ridiculous situations we often found ourselves in … In the eyes of all who know him he joins the ranks of a line of great people who put others before themselves in the struggle for fairness and justice. I hope that it in some small way this work has captured some of Owens immense dignity and courage in the face of the ultimate adversity.

Owen's wish.. "That this image be freely used in any campaign or publication that relates to industrial diseases."
Permission through...Info....Contact Tom

 

  
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