Connections

Central to my practice is an awareness of the traditional skills and knowledge that still find relevance in Island life. These are more than nostalgia. They are invisible bonds of connection passed from generation to generation; they are what remind us that we share our existence intertwined with every other life-form and organic molecule in our world. It is time to look to the young and support them to find a sustainable future in this precious landscape. Connections is produced with thanks to and as a tribute to the crofters from my village at the Fank for Sheep Dip day.

media: digital photography

Conversations with the sea
Weather, environment, topology, interaction with oceanic inhabitants and human intervention all affect tide-fall on the liminal space between what we define as land and sea. Each crashing wave and ripple is an individual and etherial experience, never to be repeated. I have begun to record some of these unique interactions as the tide lands on cyanotype paper. Light, water and chemistry capture an unseen moment as marks of wave energy. I respond through digital photography. These are my Conversations with the sea.

media: cyanotype and digital photography

St Bride the bringer of light and life
The Constant Other comes from continued research into the Celtic tradition which remains prominent in Island lives today. Changing ways of living mean that our relationship with the land and sea around us must adapt. However, some things remain deep rooted in generational memory and experience. This is my understanding of the essence of deep connection to the world around which still persists here and is obvious even to those like me born far from these shores.
The very name of the Outer Hebrides is said to be derived from the fifth century Celtic Saint Bride. There is much written about how the folklore of the Celts made sense of life and faith by embedding nature and the topology of their surroundings into story and belief. St Bride is a wonderful example of this. The Celts passed down stories of her journey; borne by angles from Ireland across the wild Minch seas of the Outer Hebrides to attend the birth of Jesus. This authenticates her as the patron saint of midwives; hovering in the doorway during childbirth to safeguard new life. It also explains her adoption as symbol of the coming spring. Exactly half way between mid winter’s day and the Spring Equinox, St Bride’s day signifies the coming of new light.
Her midwifery connection with the birth of Jesus defies logical time and physics but it places Hebrideans personally into meaningful contact with their Christian faith. Bride linked their homeland to the gospels and herself to the coming of spring that promised crops and new livestock to keep them alive for the next year.St Bride the bringer of light and life continues to hold significance as gentle February light brings hope to the winter darkness.

media: prose, video and instillation featuring multiple source projection

Living Expressions

…has recently been exhibited at Taigh Chearsabhagh Arts Centre Cafe, Lochmaddy. This is a project using cameraless photography. The pinks and golds produced during exposure to light naturally mirror the colours of the moor and grazing lands of the Outer Hebrides in spring and summer. The images are temporary and as they fade with time they take on the brown pallet of a Lewis autumn and winter making them a perfect media to express the connection between people and land. Sheep and peats are traditional have been traditional crofting jobs for centuries. Over the years the methods and habits have changed. In the last forty years they have moved from community events to mainly solitary experiences but for now they continue as those who are involved still feel the connection to people, time and place.

media: lumen photography

Village connections- past and present. An interactive work on reclaimed tongue and grove wood exploring the past, present and future of my village.

Oil Painting