May 26th, 2010 Doug
Working study of Minotaur for Nuclear Submarines collaboration
As part of my current studio work, I’m developing collaboration projects with several poets. One of these collaborations,
which will be on show during my residency at the Scottish Poetry Library, is with Edinburgh poet Rob A. Mackenzie.
Working study detail for Nuclear Submarines collaboration, from the poem by Rob A. Mackenzie
Nuclear Submarines
One day they will surely betray me.
For now, they seem content to drowse
resolutely without wit or purpose
like autistic sharks balooning
through seaweed, rock and sand
of fish cities deep in blackout.
While I’m trying to trust, one breaks
the Gareloch’s surface and fixes
its stunned gaze on the mirrored sky.
Things are as they should be -
the clouds, the flotsam, the stranger
peering from the shore with my face.
The second it drops, I no longer exist.
It has no memory, no plans.
The water rises, the sky falls,
and I am as blue is to the fish.\
Many thanks to Rob for permission to post his poem. Rob’s book ‘The Opposite of Cabbage’
is available from www.saltpublishing.com, or from any good bookseller.
Rob A, Mackenzie also writes for Magma Poetry Online
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March 29th, 2010 Doug
Work-in-progress notes for my forthcoming collaborations exhibition at The Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh
Koors Saat An Snaa
Twa days effir
he waaks amung
da waashin lyns a’dryin fysh
hingin ootsyd hoosis
laek kut-oot strings
a’choynt-up men
da baerns makk
wie fowldit paepir
an a paer a’sjiers.
Siks munt laetir,
ati’da hert a’Jol,
wie da snaa apo da aert
da unjin ati’da pikkil drum
willa med da maachikk happin
an a saat tung’ll mynd apo
dat lang simmir nyght
da katsh wis taen.
Foula sketch for ‘Pocket Noost’
One of the biggest influences on my work as many people would know is literature, and more specifically poetry, and through my work I have had the opportunity and good fortune to work with some excellent poets. For a long time I’ve wanted to produce an exhibition based around collaborations and work influenced by literature ,and this May I finally have the opportunity to do so with an exhibition at the Scottish Poetry Library, in Edinburgh.
I am working on an exhibition of assemblages and drawings, influenced by the work of various poets including Andrew Philip, Donald S. Murray, Jen Hadfield, Valerie Gillies, Robert Alan Jamieson, Norman Bissell, Peter Urpeth, Christine De Luca, Kevin MacNeil and Rob A. Mackenzie. There will also be a selection of images from a project I am developing, based on Alexander Barclay’s translation of Sebastian Brandt’s ‘Das Narrenschiff’ (The Ship of Fools), originally published in 1494 and translated by Barclay in 1874.
Being given the opportunity to exhibit in the Scottish Poetry Library is also a great privilege for me. During the 80’s and the 90’s I was a regular visitor to the old library in Tweeddale Court, just off the Royal Mile, and was lucky enough to have several pieces of my work featured in Lines Review thanks to the SPL’s founder, Tessa Ransford. I’m thrilled to have the chance to show my work in the fantastic surroundings of the new library building.
Amongst work featured will be several new works, including a sequence of small theatre-like assemblages entitled ‘Horizontals’, based on five one-line poems by Andrew Philip (below), and two boxes inspired by Robert Alan Jamieson’s pieces ‘Koors Saat an Snaa’ (above) and ‘Ta Kompis’.
unreal estates
crammed horizons crowned with crows
bordering
the earth’s limit the sky’s shore the sea’s march
turbulent
sleek white singers of the skyline whistling reels
signals
only the roaring silence of the clouds
questioned
are ye dancin? the wind asks the swell
Over the next few weeks I’ll post some more of the poems along with sketchbook images of the art work. The exhibition will run from the 8th of May to the 14th of June 2010, with the normal SPL opening times applying.
Poems by kind permission of Robert Alan Jamieson and Andrew Philip
Photographs by kind permission of Murdo MacDonald
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January 10th, 2010 Doug
Lagan - Mixed Media Assemblage
Over the years, I have created many pieces of work related to our fishing industry, both in relation to its place in the historical and cultural life of the east coast of Scotland, and with its part in my own families history through stories of my Grandfather’s people.
Many of these works have been exhibited in galleries with strong fishing links, such as the Timespan Heritage Centre in the Sutherland village of Helmsdale, an area made famous in the novels of Neil Gunn, and at The Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther, a small fishing port on the East Neuk of Fife.
As well as influencing the art of novelists and poets such as Neil Gunn and Christopher Rush, the subject of the lives and traditions of our fisherfolk has been a rich source of stories, images and songs for many artists, musicians, and dramatists.
One of the most fascinating projects on this theme is the People And Songs Of The Sea, an exhibition and recordings, conceived, collected and produced by Edinburgh based musician, photo journalist and broadcaster Shona McMillan. Through her photographic exhibition and the recording of songs celebrating the lives of the fisherfolk, Shona has created a window of opportunity for people not only to view the past lives of these communities, but to see how time and tides have changed the lives of the inhabitants of the east coasts fishing villages.
The project provides a valuable record through songs and photographs, of how life has changed, and is still changing, for the Scottish fishing industry. But it is not only a historical reference to this way of life, but is a living growing event that will continue to evolve and be enhanced with the life experiences and struggles of these proud and hard working communities. The full story of the project, which I couldn’t expect to justice to here, can be found on the People Of The Sea MySpace site.
When chatting with Shona recently, I found it fascinating that the stories and experiences of the fisherfolk and our families were, through their histories, intertwined. Shona’s people like many, followed the Herring fleets around the British coastline. Their voyage would take them from Highland ports such as Wick and Helmsdale, down the east coast via Lowestoft, to the southern harbours of towns such as Folkstone. My own family, originally from the inshore Herring fishing communities of the sea-lochs of Argyll, had followed a similar route, but had settled and continued to fish from Folkstone.
The assemblage illustrated above ‘Lagan’, tells the story of my Grandfather’s upbringing in the fishing communities of Kent. Due to the untimely death of his mother, and my great- grandfathers commitment to his boat and crew, my grandfather and his siblings were placed in a home for the children of fishermen. Despite providing for his children, my great-grandfather never returned to see his children. The word ‘lagan’ is a term used for goods or objects that are to placed overboard on a voyage, but marked with a buoy or similar marker, to enable you to come back and collect them later. I used this term to describe the children, set adrift on their upturned boat, waiting for the return of their father.
In the image the family group is incomplete, the four children, the imprint of fishing nets on their bodies, stand in front of the ‘missing’ father figure. The two shores in the background represent my grandfathers own journey, from the white chalk cliffs of southern England on the left side, to the banks of the Tay on the right, where my grandfather settled after his own voyages at sea and at war.
I am continuing on my own journey, and will be creating more works that will not only be celebrating my own families connection to the fishing heritage of Scotland, but also the memory and bravery of the much missed fishing communities of my native east coast.
The CD of the the People And Songs Of The Sea can be purchased by clicking on cover artwork above.
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December 25th, 2009 Doug
As part of the next exhibition, I have been developing a sequence of works
based on the experiences I have had walking, collecting and researching
my work along the shores of the many and varied coastlines of Scotland.
Ardneil Bay and Arran, on the Firth of Clyde.
Working studies for Walking The Coast
When out collecting and researching for new work, my travels take me to a wide variety different places. I am lucky enough through the years to have had the opportunity to experience the incredible beauty, colour and diversity of landscape, people and folklore of my native Scotland.
During the course of a typical journey my studies will, inevitably, lead me back on to one of those thin strips of land which we call the shore. The edge has a curious and magnetic fascination that has been with me since boyhood, growing up on the shores of the Firth of Tay, and the coasts of Angus and North East Fife.
A snowy Clyde coast and Arran.
Working from my sketchbook notes, I have chosen to create a series of eight coasts which have made a significant contribution to my art. Each piece consists of a painted panel representing the colour and mood of the area (based on the working studies above) with a recessed box containing a small collection of objects, or votive offering to the shore.
The coastline experiences being used in this sequence are from Ardneil Bay, Ayrshire; Abertay Sands, Fife; Uig Bay, Skye; Traigh Mor, Lewis; The Tan, Argyll and Bute; Loch na Keal, Mull; Kingoodie Bay, Tayside; and Stenness, Shetland.
Notebook pages for votive offerings
The following are working notes from my Moleskines for Walking The Coast. They are my ‘memoria technica’ so therefore may seem disjointed, but they should help to get the basic ideas behind each piece. (There are a few references to the working title of Walking The Coast (with Joe’s ghost), and during the development of this idea I was carrying around a copy of Joseph Cornell’s Vision of Spiritual Order in my work bag. Good company on any journey!)
(more text to follow)
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April 23rd, 2008 Doug
As part of a new series of work I have been developing, I have been researching emigration and exile, especially the mass emigrations from Scotland in the 19th and 20th centuries.
With this in mind I was luck enough to have the opportunity to visit Ellis Island, the former emigration centre on the Hudson River in New York, where many hundreds of thousands of European migrants were processed and graded for suitability for entry to the United States. It has been restored and tell the story of the people who made this brave journey into the unknown.
When standing in the Registry Hall (pictured below) it was incredible to think that at times they would deal with around !5,000 people in a day! And even more daunting was the fact that, even after weeks at sea, you could be deemed unsuitable for entry and sent back to Europe on the next ship. The whole journey and subsequent events must have been unbelievable trial of strength and faith for the emigrants.
It was very useful to be able to walk around the buildings and make the short crossing to the island in helping me to formulate the ideas for my project. There is nothing more useful to an artist that first hand experience of subjects and places, in order to get a clear picture of the subject you are dealing with,
I hope the work I produce will be a fitting tribute to the bravery of these pioneering people.
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April 1st, 2008 Doug
Over the last few weeks I have been working with students researching art projects, and during discussions I am often asked what makes me ‘tick’?
I have been lucky enough to have had several working trips to galleries and museums over the last few weeks, and amongst these were visits to two of my favorites; the Pitt Rivers Museum, at Oxford University and the British Museum in London. Any time I visit these museums I fill several pages of my notebooks with writings and sketches to support work that I am developing in the studio.
The Victorian layout of the Pitt Rivers is fascinating and brings out the curiosity in me, with all the dark cases full to the brim of interesting anthropological objects from far flung regions of the world and antiquated labels revealing the use of these bizarre objects including carrying a pair of moles feet in your pocket to ward off toothache!!!
The British Museum is always a great favorite of mine and the beautiful artifacts are a superb source of ideas.
As a self-taught carver, seeing objects such as the Lewis Chessmen fills me with admiration for the craftsmen who produced these superb pieces of art and with a degree of skill that I would love to bring into the work I produce. Some of the religious objects from Ireland and Scotland leave me in awe of their intricate detail and decoration.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to get out and about around some more of our fascinating museums and feed my imagination and language in art. I’m off to New York in a few days adn I’m sure I’ll not be disappointed with the wealth of art I’ll be able to fill my books with!
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February 16th, 2008 Doug
Where does it all begin? With my thinking process it all starts, as usual, in the little black Moleskine notebooks. Never far from my side, and always at the ready for ideas, notes and sketches.
The contents of the books varies, depending on what I am working on at the time; lists of materials needed, quotes from books I have been reading, or working notes for the next stage of a project.
Sometimes it’s the first sketches of an idea which can spring to mind at any time, as with the notebook pages below, that were drawn at 21,000 feet on a flight back from Shetland. And the locality of where the drawings were done can bear no relationship to the images, as with the bottom pages, exploring an idea first started after a trip to the Western Isles, and drawn on the steps of the V&A in London while taking a tea-break from working with the weaver Sue Lawty.
At the moment I am in the studio spending time unravelling and editing the notebooks, choosing the important elements and developing them further in my sketchbooks. I am constantly collecting ideas and images and the working notes in my books are often in a shorthand form that only I can decipher (sometimes I even find it difficult to untangle my own witings!)
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December 1st, 2007 Doug
Old Red Sandstone, Ayrshire
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December 1st, 2007 Doug
A few days ago I spent an hour or so on one of my favorite pastimes, rummaging in old bookshops. I’ve collected books for working and pleasure for years, and love the thrill of finding a volume of poetry or a reference text for working that I have been searching for for years. On this occasion it was the racks of old maps that were my main focus. I’ve built up a good collection of “Bartholomew’s Quarter Inch Maps Of Scotland”, and I am always on the look out for the elusive missing sections of the country, or replacements for well worn and used copies.
At the time of publishing, there were several choices of the style of the map you could buy, depending ( I guess) on your disposable income. A small section of maps on the shelf drew my attention, and amongst them was a pristine condition copy of a ‘dissected and mounted on cloth’ map, the Rolls Royce of Bart’s maps. In the pile was a copy of ‘Glasgow and Oban’, looking as if it had never been unfolded. The map contained my haven area of the Clyde Estuary and the Cumbraes, and the small dissected sections of the map were in beautiful condition.
I’ve always been fascinated by maps; planning oaths I’m going to take, or recollecting previously walked routes, using the maps as a mnemonic to recall images, colours and places that have caught my imagination. Many of the maps I have used over the years for working are peppered with small pencil notes and drawings, names and descriptions of features, stories and ideas. I’ve enjoyed naming the unnamed features on the maps, and putting back forgotten or old names of places that are local or no longer included by Ordnance Survey. This may sound like a romantic pursuit, but many of the names will describe less than desirable features, such as the many ‘Destitution Roads’ on the west coast of Scotland.
I have worked with several writers and artists who have a similar addiction to maps as myself. A dear friend and collaborator, the poet Valerie Gillies once described her practice as “a pair of boots, a map and a compass”. Maps are an invaluable tool to me, both in the field and in the research and preparation work done in the studio. Both Valerie and I explore and research areas of interest to us very thoroughly, and spend a large amount of time in preparation for working by researching locations and subjects through books, websites and of course, maps. I will ‘walk’ an area by reading the details of the map, studying the drawings and features, finding the right areas to explore in the relative comfort of the studio, before venturing out into the real thing.
I’ve been back in the bookshop again today, searching through the racks for the missing stretch of coastline or the wild glens and burns, hoping above all to find the next pristine ‘dissected and mounted on cloth’. Follow the links below to Valerie’s ‘Poetry map Of Scotland’, or the Ordnance Survey website. Start your own addiction to maps!
www.spl.org.uk/poetry_map/index1.htm
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
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November 8th, 2007 Doug
‘Das Narren Schyff’.
Often ideas will come from the strangest places.
Recently I have been reading and researching some medieval Gaelic poetry, to source ideas for some new drawings and constructions. One of the poems, “Tanaig Long ar Loch Rannoch” (A Ship Has Come on Loch Rannoch) tells of a supernatural boat, constructed from Bramble leaves, thorns, stringers of rushes, cables of barley husks etc., crewed by demonic naked witches.
This not only reflects the tradition of witches going to sea in crafts such as sieves, or eggshells and catching extraordinary amounts of fish by unnatural means, but also the superstition around women crewing boats. Until recent times there was a tendency for Hebridean fishing crews to turn back for home if they encountered a woman on the way to their boats!
Reading these poems has also lead me to take another look at the 15th century tale of “The Ship of Fools” (Das Narren Schyff) written by Sebastian Brandt, and illustrated in the 16th century by many artists, including Albrecht Durer. The influence of this European writing is clear in the work of the Gaelic poets, and they must have been aware of such publications. The ship as a metaphor representing groups of people or a country has often been used in various art forms. Most are, like both of the above poems, satirical in context.
I have skirted around the edge of these texts and others I find fascinating for many years, working on notes and ideas in the sketchbooks, but never fully committing them to final designs. Occasionally, when people have been looking through the sketchbooks they are surprised to find images based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, or the translated tales of the Irish King Sweeney, by Seamus Heaney. Over the next few months I am going to develop these ideas and will produce them as a series of drawings and constructions. I find that even though these texts are around 500 years old, the imagery and themes are comparable with our modern day culture. Watch out for future posts as this theme develops.
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