Rock Ferry man needs exhibition space as BBC takes an interest in his art

Nov 18 2009 by Matt Hurst, Heswall News

A ROCK Ferry man who suddenly developed a powerful urge to paint following a stroke is appealing for exhibition space ahead of the arrival of a BBC film crew.

Tommy McHugh, who turns 60 this month, led a troubled life peppered with drug addiction until 2001, when he was hit by two strokes.

He said: “In the early stages of recovery – they sent me home after 10 days – I was trying to speak but everything was in rhyme.

“My wife got fed up of me speaking like this, so she gave me a piece of paper and said ‘write it down’.

“So I started writing thousands of rhymes and continued.

“I decided I didn’t want to just be a patient, so I just started painting a spare bit of wall.“

Since then Tommy has covered the interior of his home with murals, and attracted significant interest from the scientific community.

His reaction to the ill health has been dubbed Sudden Artistic Creativity, and has led to a call from the BBC’s Horizon programme.

The production team will visit Tommy on November 24, as part of a film examining intelligence.

The programme is aimed at understanding the working of the brain and the formation of ideas.

Now Tommy is appealing for help to find an empty Birkenhead shop to use as exhibition space while the film-makers are in town.

l If you think you can help Tommy by providing an empty space for a day, or perhaps longer, call 643 8256.