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In addition to the pieces of work that are on display in this Gallery and its various areas, I also undertake private commissions.

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The Watch Tower

After the Alms House had been claimed by the spurious relative of its previous owner; a strange growth began to appear opposite the Alms House on the more open side of the crossroads. At first it became a small hump set just back from the road. The hump grew steadily over three or four weeks until a crack in the ground appeared, peeking through was a green and red spotted mushroom cap, which slowly grew into an enormous mushroom. Thickly rooted at the base it twisted as it grew, with rope like strands crisscrossing it. Grey veins ran from beneath the soil slowly creeping up the stem. Within the space of 6 weeks the new shroom dominated the crossroads. Standing looming over the road it was quite unsettling for travellers coming along the road and most hurried past without stopping. However what was even more unsettling was what happened shortly after the shroom stopped its growth spurt. To begin with what looked like the knot on a tree trunk began to show towards the top of the stem. A series of rounded grooves formed with a slightly protruding bulge in the centre. Above that in the caps gills two further protuberances were visible, these seemed to pulse and something moved behind the thin membrane which covered them. Then one day whilst a traveller paused to get his bearings and wipe his sweaty brow, he heard an odd tearing sound, looking around to see what might have caused the noise he finally looked toward the twisted shroom and was witness to the emergence of two eyeballs pushing their way clear of the thin membrane between the shrooms gills, they slid slowly from their nesting place. Long optic nerves made the eyeballs dangle some distance from the cap as they swayed from side to side watching all around. As the traveller stepped back shocked to see this happen he watched with mouth open wide in a silent scream as a third eye opened in the centre of the stem, the eye rolled in its socket its gaze as yet unfocused . The traveller, seeing this stumbled back and tripped, falling on his backside giving a yelp of pain and surprise at which point the pupil contracted suddenly, and the eye focused sharply on him. The traveller scrambled to his feet and took off towards the village at a dead run. As he disappeared from view a hunched figure shuffled across to the shroom and stroked its stem lovingly, raising a hand he caressed the dangling eyeballs which stretched towards his hand.

“Well done,” the figure whispered, “Keep watch…”

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