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When Swansea based artist Valerie Ganz
says,"Before the closures I worked in about 15 coal mines", you might do a double take. But by worked, she
means drawing and painting and yes, she did go down the mines, crawling around underground with the miners
to create a unique record of their lives Ganz has a fearless curiosity that makes her step, sketchbook in hand,
into any world that interests her. And if something is hidden from view whether it's underground, behind bars
or after hours it seems to interest her all the more.
"When you think about it, since they introduced miners' baths you never see anyone looking like a
miner on the street," she says, explaining why she decided to go behind the scenes at the collieries.
A similar impulse led her to paint inmates at Swansea prison As a child Ganz had passed its blank
walls every day on the Mumbles railway. "I used to think, what's going on behind there?" she says. "I thought
I'd really like to see how they cope with life in there."
