Creative Arts Wales
Commissioned Stories Francis Thomas - Artist Extraordinaire
Francis Thomas - Artist Extraordinaire
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- Francis Thomas' Life-story
I worked with artist in residence Maureen O’Kane and Welsh artist Francis Rowland Thomas who was a patient at Ysbyty George Thomas suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. Francis had led a fascinating life as an artist in London and was part of the Carnaby Street scene during the 60s. We were researching his life and works with the intention of producing a digital story about his life at a later time. This was suspended when Francis was hospitalised following a bad fall and later his Alzheimer’s deteriorated and the project came to an end.
However, later on, and at the request of his carers, I was asked to put a story together from the information already collected. Francis’s voice was to be an integral part of the story but the quality of the audio recorded on a small hand recorder in a hospital setting was not the best. Hearing Francis himself reminisce about his life is fascinating but another story has been produced with a voice-over which includes snippets which could not be included on the original due to the bad audio quality. However, the 2 versions seem to complement each other very well.
