I graduated from Orkney College, UHI in 2021 with a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art and Textiles and with a Distinction for my Degree Show. I use my art to reconnect with people, situations and roots long lost.
In the 1600s there was a mini ice age all over Britain. In Harray crops had failed. People were starving. Fifteen men set off across the hill to get ‘ebb-maet’ from the shore to eke out their food. Coming back a blizzard blew up and all fifteen perished. I want to tell the story of these men but also of their widows. Their lives would have been filled with unremitting toil to keep their families going.
By using present day materials I am trying to evoke, not a copy of what was once there, but a metaphor for it. The paper wedding dress shows the fragility of hopes and dreams, of memories, of life itself, the fragility of the happy ending. I want these women’s voices to come through, showing silence isn’t silent at all but full of sound.
In my art I am trying to remind people where they came from and what it sometimes costs to keep things together and carry on.
