So, here is one of the reasons that I've not posted in a wee while. Due to serendipity (I love that word) I got chatting to a lovely lady called Cheryl James and we got chatting about art and photography, and she mentioned that she was doing an installation in an old mill. I said how I would love to draw a place like that, and lo and behold, she said there was space for me to join her in her exhibition.
Its an amazing mill, still using machines dating as far back as early 1900's, most are from the 40's and 50's, and if they could talk... One lovely guy working there, been working in the mills for 50 odd years, and only been out of work for 5 minutes. Said he got made redundant from one mill, walked down the road and got hired at the next mill. Had incredible stories, but getting him to stop...
Each machine had beautiful parts, each one individually designed for a specific use, but taken away from its context a great sculptural work of art. Not sure that is what the engineer/designer had in mind when he made it, and not sure that I captured it, but I could have spent months in that place drawing.
So, many visits later, drawing the two men working there, the old looms, the weird and wonderful contraptions, I found myself putting up an exhibition with Cheryl. All crazy and usual last minute panic to get things done, but I did it. So, if anyone is in Selkirk, its on till the 20th December, at Andrew Elliot Ltd. Phew.
