Briton battles to keep 'work of art' home

An unemployed Briton has launched a campaign to prevent his house from being repossessed amid the global downturn -- on the grounds that it is a work of art.

Forklift truck driver Steve Williams has spent the past five years turning his home in Stoke-on-Trent, west central England, into an art gallery of his own.

"I started off just doing a couple of smaller paintings in the kitchen, and it just expanded from there," he told the Sentinel newspaper Tuesday.

"I've been painting the house on and off over the last few years now, sometimes changing the designs. My favourite one is probably the mural in the front room."

"I'm gutted (disappointed) that I could be losing the house after spending so much time on it."

After graduating from college in 2003, the 25-year-old found work related to his passion hard to come by, and eventually took a job as a forklift truck driver, but amid the global economic downturn, that work has dried up as well.

Williams took over the mortgage on his parents' home when they moved out but has since found it hard to cover the 360-pound (390-euro, 530-dollar) monthly payments, especially as the economic downturn deepens.

His friends have started an Internet campaign to ensure that he does not lose the house, using social networking websites Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness, and offering his home as a site for music videos or photo shoots.