Working from home, I have been painting for many years and gained an HNC Art and Design from Ayr College in 2008. From there I went on the University of West of Scotland, where I gained a First Class Honours Degree in Digital Art.

The project, undertaken for my Degree Show, was an embroidered wall-hanging, based on Glasgow humour. For my Research Project in my final year at university, I studied the work of ‘The Glasgow Four’ – specifically the women of the group; Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh and her sister, Frances Macdonald McNair.

The idea for the final piece was spawned during my preliminary research into the Glasgow School after looking at works from turn of the 20th century – artists such as Pheobe Anna Traquair, Ann McBeth, Jessie Newbery, others from the Glasgow School of art, and specifically the Macdonald sisters.

I wanted to base my project on Glasgow and the humour of the Glasgwegian people. The idea of using the Glasgow crest came from Mackintosh’s use of the crest in his iconic Glasgow School of Art building. The little verse, taught to children so they would remember the constituents of the Coat of Arms became the linchpin for the eventual form the crest would take. The story behind the Crest can be found here

There’s the bird that never flew

  • The robin that St. Mungo so lovingly brought back to life for his mentor, St. Serf, has become a robin reliant – which so obviously has never flown.

There’s the tree that never grew

  • The hazel branch has been reclaimed and is now in use as a shoe tree – as befits any modern tree that can’t grow!

There’s the bell that never rang 

  • In the day of St. Mungo when anything important had to be conveyed to the people of the villages and towns, the church bell was rung. Communication to the masses has moved and and the satellite dish has taken the place of the church bell; so in my wall hanging, the bell has been recycled and now lives at the top of a skyscraper instead of the top of a church steeple.

There’s the fish that never swam

  • The salmon that held Queen Languoreth’s wedding ring in its mouth after the King threw it in the River Clyde, has morphed into a salmon with attitude, complete with ring (as a piercing, of course), tattoo and Mohawk hairdo.

Also contained in the piece are representations of famous Glasgow comedians, songwriters and performers, i.e. Billy Connolly, Matt McGinn and Adam McNaughton; and finally, as a border, we have the musical notation of the song “I Belong To Glasgow”.

The whole project was a light-hearted approach to the brief. The execution of the work was a complete diversion from my normal modes of working. I had never embroidered before, either traditionally or digitally, so this entailed a huge learning curve, both in terms of using the embroidery machines and in digitizing the patterns. I believe that, in the beginning, ignorance was certainly bliss. I would probably never have undertaken this project had I known just how much extra time and commitment to educating myself in the intricacies of digital embroidery would be involved in its creation.

As a consequence of this project, I have come to love the medium and have decided to continue to explore it. I hope to find new ways to incorporate digital embroidery in my work.