Interview with Love ArtUK

Over the last year or so the word LOVE has been appearing around Liverpool city centre. Spray-painted onto walls and pavements it is the work of urban artist Love ArtUK. An emerging artist on a mission to spread his work and help reignite the ideas of love in those who see it.

By jjSchaer - 10/4/2014

Love ArtUK, sometimes knows as Jay Wheeler, was a tank soldier for twelve years before having a mental breakdown brought on by his experiences in the forces. Returning home and attempting suicide he found himself in psychiatric care. It was whilst in hospital that he began painting in the occupational therapy department. It was here that Love ArtUK was born.

I recently met with him at his latest exhibition at HeadSpace to discuss his work, life and love itself.

How did you start doing the artworks with the theme of LOVE?
Well when I was sitting down in the Occupational Therapy Room and I thought if I’m gonna be here all week I didn’t wanna just do nothing. I mean I painted when I was in school, you know, which was twenty-odd years ago. And it never interested me at all. And joining the army for twelve years it’s a completely different way of life. So I just thought ‘ok, do something, just get the paints out, get the brushes out and base it on something that means something to me now and how I’m feeling’. I wanted to do something that meant something to me. And the first one I did, I spoke with a wood-working guy and I got him to cut me out a wooden heart. But what it was there was pieces of the heart breaking away. And it was a red heart and all the little pieces were falling from the edge and stuff. Then I put a little statement, because I thought I didn’t just want to leave it like that I wanted to put a statement on it and I took from my perspective of a broken relationship. So it said ‘Love can be magic, but magic can also be an illusion’… Or something like that. And that’s when, basically, I kind of realised ‘what have I been doing for the twelve years?’

I had a friend say to me once “why did you join the army because you’re a very chilled bit of a loving person? And I said “well I never joined the army to fight”. And I didn’t. My whole idea of joining the army was not to fight and go to wars. Primarily it was about how I wanted to help people. Because I remember seeing on the news, before I joined the army, soldiers in Bosnia giving out aid to families in the street. And I just saw it and I thought: ‘I’d love to do that. I’d love to do just something like that.’ I ended up leaving school with no qualifications. At all. Did a couple of like proper crazy jobs initially. Just walking through town one day past the careers, and I think it was the night before I’d seen this thing on the telly about Bosnia, and I went in to have a chat about it, then, you know, twelve years later.

Because I’d had a failed relationship at the time when I had the breakdown. I’d come back from Afghanistan and I’d lost my friend out there. And I’d seen lads get blown up, literally blown up, for the first time ever. I came home and I didn’t feel I was finding it difficult but somehow it just kind of affected my personal relationship.

Do you see anything positive coming out of your time in the army?
I tell you one story, true story, it was my second tour of Kosovo, it was a winter tour and snow was up to your waist. My section were sent to the border of Kosovo and Serbia. We were told to go up into the mountains, in a four-man crew in a Rover, and just see if there were any families struggling because of the weather. So we went up one day and we came across this family, husband and wife, two little girls and a little boy. They literally had this hut with window frames and no windows in them. And they had one cow. They brought us into their home and showed us they were literally sleeping on the floor and the children had one blanket between the three of them and the mum and dad slept on the other side in that same room with one blanket. And there was all like this openness about their home. And they were struggling because the cow was their income basically, for the milk and stuff. So we went back and reported what we had seen.

We had like a makeshift kitchen for us and we had these big black bins: this bin would be full of like Mars bars and Snickers, this bin would be filled with biscuits in packets, little cartons of juices, apples, snacks and so forth. So I went and got this black bin liner, because we had to go back up the next day with blankets for them, and I just thought I’m gonna fill this bag up and take it for them. So I go into the kitchen and I start filling this bag up and the chef that was allocated to us came out and he was saying “what are you doing?” so I say “we’re going to see this family tomorrow and they’ve got nothing literally so I’m just taking these rations for them” and he’s like “you can’t, they’re your rations” and he said he was going to tell my Troop Sergeant and I was like “tell him”. So I’d filled this bag up and it was like rammed full of chocolate bars, biscuits, the lot. So the Sergeant comes and sees me and I tell him it was for that family we saw today and I was like “you know they score, they haven’t got nothing” and he was like “fine, crack on”.

And this is one family in the mountains, in the snow and they haven’t got nothing. And you’re like giving us boil in the bag meals so we’re not going to starve, far from it. But these people are and that’s what we did. So we went up the next day and we went up to the father, my friends gave him the blankets we had and I said we’ve got this big bag and opened it up. All the kids came out and were looking, and I knew then that bag of sweets and biscuits and so forth was gonna last them maybe a week, maybe two weeks at the most considering the amount that was in there. And you’d have thought that you’d have picked them up and taken them and put them in a different world. Put them on a different planet. And they were so, so grateful. And you could see them rise and I’ve never, never forgot that. And I’ll tell that story until the day I die because it’s bang on and that’s what I joined the army for. I didn’t join to get physical and all that type of stuff and there are admittedly guys in the army that are like that and I wasn’t one of them and never have been that type of person, you know. So if I can do something like that, you can’t put a price on something like that, you know what I mean? It doesn’t even come close… So yeah that is one of the reasons why definitely.

Do you see yourself as a different person before being in hospital?
Totally. When I was sitting on my couch in my apartment and I was going to take my life by any means. I didn’t but something died, something definitely died a year and a half ago. That person that was me was gone. That’s what I wanted. That’s what I was thinking and that’s what I wanted to happen. And it actually happened. But not in the physical sense, you know. And literally as soon as I went into that hospital and started going into that transition that was it. That was when the real Jay came out. And people say to me do you miss the army and I’m like ‘no I don’t miss the army’. I don’t have anything up in my home that is related to the army whatsoever. I know what I’ve done, I know where I’ve been and it’s in there. I don’t need things around to remind me of that. I’m not angry with myself because I think I was naive, but I’m grateful because it was a life lesson and I’ve learnt from it. And I think it’s ok to make mistakes in life as long as we learn from it. If we don’t then nothing gonna change. And I’ve learnt from the back end of that, this is why I go out and I spray love on the floor with a stencil and stuff. Because I want someone else to go out and look at that and I want them to go on their own individual journey.

I’m grateful for the breakdown. Because if it wasn’t for the breakdown I wouldn’t be doing this. I mean Love ArtUK wouldn’t even exist, do you know what I mean?

When you were in Broad Oak did they teach you any skills or did this all just come out?
No, it just came out. As god as my witness it just came out because of the way I was feeling. And that’s it. I mean I had someone on the viewing saying ‘how did you get all the textures done?’ Alright so what I do is, I mean one day and I was feeling lazy and I just left the roller on the side and it dried. So the next day I thought right it’s time to do some painting and it was solid and I though sod it I’ll use it anyway. So after I dipped it in the paint it gave this ripple effect and I thought right I’ll play with that. So I got the ripple effect and because I use paint and spray for this one for instance so I came up to the side with the spray and thought I’ll use it indirect from the side and see what you get. And that works…

What are your feelings about love in our society?
It’s used as an excuse and it shouldn’t be. Don’t say I love you unless you mean it because that’s where it’s going wrong. Like I said, when you look at old people, old couples, they’ve been saying it for fifty-odd or sixty-odd years and they mean it. Because they’ve gone through turmoil, ups and downs, and they sincerely mean it. I’m not saying that you don’t mean it with you girlfriend or your wife. Only the test of time will prove that. So none of us should use love as an excuse and I sincerely mean that.

There are a lot of people that argue about the concept of love as just that and that it doesn’t exist. Would you argue against that and say it has to exist?
Yeah, yeah, I say it’s the only emotion we have. Anything living, anything with a life, every type of species, we all have that emotion. We may approach it in a different way. You know because we’re English and were brought up in a Westernised type of way so we know our thinking and approach. But then we’ve got different religions and they approach it in a completely different type of manner but it’s still love. But through their own different belief and so forth they have different approaches. It’s like even with your dog, when you come through that door after like being out of the house for two hours, then your dog is going crazy like you’ve been away for a year. That’s love. Just showing your love. I’ve got a little Jack Russell, she’s beautiful. They don’t say they love you, but you know they love you and they know they love you. So it’s an emotion and it’s what we choose to do with that emotion. The sad thing is you can beat a dog black and blue, which I totally disagree with, then walk out of that door and come back and it’s like you’ve never been away and it’ll still love you the same way. That’s the sad part about it. There is unconditional love but they still love you the same way and that’s abuse. But you can’t abuse love. Because sooner or later, in whatever form, it will come back to haunt you in a bad way.

With Love ArtUK do you see it becoming a name in itself, like a brand or a collective? I mean I know you mentioned before about wanting it to become global. But would you be happy yourself for people to come along and start spraying LOVE everywhere?
Yeah, because again it’s a universal thing. I mean I’m not in it to become an individual and ride that horse. It’s not about that. In fact my little LOVE tag is sprayed on a wall at the back of here and if you follow the wall around at the end of it someone has spray-painted the words ‘Love and Peace’. Wouldn’t you rather walk around the corners and see Love sprayed on the walls in whatever colours and whatever forms, rather than graffiti, lettering and so forth, that has no meaning apart from to the individual that has put it on. But the word ‘love’ has significance to us all. I think that would be pretty cool.

I was gonna say you’ve been starting to get feedback, you’ve won awards and Banksy has been in touch…
Yeah, yeah. Well what I did, when I initially came out of hospital and started doing the LOVE stencil, it was around the beginning of September a year and a half ago. And I’ve always liked Banksy, I became aware of him over the last five years. You know what I did, I went on Google and thought I’m going to find him and I’m going to tell him what I’m doing with art and I found the website for Pest Control. And I thought you might as well be honest, you’re not having a face to face with him – admittedly people have judged me for having the breakdown. I just thought be honest with him and tell him about the suicide thing and losing your mate in Afghanistan and the breakdown and just put it in an email and tell him how you have come to find art. And this email – it was this long, I swear to god – and you could see after the first paragraph that it kept going and going. But, no word of a lie, I did it. Wasn’t expecting anything back. Then two weeks later on my birthday, on the 15th of September, I was at home in my apartment feeling a bit sorry for myself because I was on my own and all that. I was watching something on the TV and thought just check my emails and in the inbox there was one from Pest Control. I bring it up and it said basically… what it said, because it kind of got me thinking, basically it says ‘thank you so much for your e-mail, it was a joy to read about your story and it was a joy to find how you’d come to find your art. Banksy had read your e-mail and sends you his encouragement and support and wishes you well with it and would like to be updated with your progress’, and I was like that, is this for real? Honest to god. I was on the phone then… I’ve still got it today in a special box in my email. And every now and again I go into it because I kind of see that as an achievement.

Also when I was in the last year of being in the army and I was on the sick really, medically on the sick, so that’s me at home doing my art thing and realistically on paper I’m still in the army. So every two weeks I’d get a visit from welfare. He got to know what I was doing with this art. So he read this email and he said to me ‘do you know there’s this Templar Award for military personnel that have come to find art through admission to hospital through having a mental breakdown and have continued to progress with it. This is exactly what you’re doing, so do you want to apply for it?’ So I was like ok. But my thing is I don’t see myself as an artist, I see myself as an expressionist. You could weigh up the pros and cons and go: Expressionist. I like expressing my own emotions and feelings. He encouraged me to do it. He came back two weeks later for the paper work to fill in and attach some works of art. And no word of a lie it was on my table for almost a month with stuff getting piled on top of it every day. And one day I thought you know what just fill it in and do it and sent it off. Then a month and a half later I got this call from some retired Colonel who said ‘I’m not really supposed to tell you this, but you are going to get a phone call because you have won the award’. He didn’t say it initially, he started by asking how I thought it was going and so on and then led up to it. Two days later I got a phone call from the art award people and they said ‘congratulations you’ve won the award’, so I won a cheque and the Templar art award and I’ve got a piece of my work on show in the Military Art Galleries down in London. And the artwork I’ve got there at the moment, and it’s on my Facebook page and that, but it’s like a silhouette of a woman holding an umbrella. And it’s repeated across the whole size of the backboard. And it was grey background, black silhouette and red umbrella. And the idea of that was my title was that’s my umbrella. So, when you’re in love and something goes wrong you need that umbrella. You know, because if you go into something without an umbrella you’re gonna get wet. You know. And that’s on show in the Military Art Gallery and I couldn’t believe it. And it’s a lot actually. It took about two weeks for the actual award to come through and I was saying to the welfare officer this is great. I wanted to actually physically see it. There was something holding me back and I wanted to see it this time, see my name on it. When it came two weeks later, I had to go to Preston for a presentation for it and things like that. I remember standing there next to this Colonel and it was at that moment that I started feeling really emotional. It just felt like I wanted to cry. But because I’d cried so long through sadness I thought it was really weird because for once I felt good about myself. And now that was accepted in my own head that I’d won this award. And again it was something I’d never entertained in my life. Like I said I did it in school, but we all did. It wasn’t something that I chose to do. I did it up to my fourth year in school because I had to. But it’s really weird, because even in telling you now it’s fantastic. And when I went on Radio Merseyside two weeks ago, they came and did an interview here, two weeks prior to that I was in the Echo newspaper talking about the gallery and the mental breakdown and stuff. And you’re here today doing your thing. And it is weird, it is very weird.

I suppose it has all happened in a really short time, I suppose even learning to paint as well. My mate Claire always says ‘do you know what you have achieved in such a short period of time?’ And I’m like ‘No’. I mean it’s like on my Facebook page, I’ve got people getting in touch telling me how the artworks make them feel. I mean I’ve had people in Guatemala; people in the States coming up and saying I’ve had a mental breakdown and my god you’re an inspiration. I don’t get it. But now slowly you come to realise that it’s not just you that’s had a mental breakdown. There are other people out there getting judged as well. Because you’ve just had this illness pushed upon you.

What do you see as the future of your art?
Well I mean it’s been going now for a year now and you can look on the fact that the early stuff was very dark and thought provoking. Now it’s still very thought provoking but not as very dark I would believe.

Do you see that as the place you were in at the time?
Yeah, which was very personal. I haven’t done that to pleasure your eyes. I haven’t. I’ve done that for me. And I’ve put it up there. Now if you see something in it, you’ve seen something in it. So obviously at the moment with Love ArtUK, my intention is to go global because what I would like to do, this is my dream now, so I would like Love ArtUK to become massive and I want to be able to, because the bigger you are, because I am fighting a materialistic world at the same time, but the bigger Love ArtUK becomes the more people look and listen. Then you get an element of power, but you can use that power for a positive means rather than a negative.

For more on Love ArtUK see his Facebook page facebook.com/love.artuk.92

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