Artsy happenings! by Aimee Chalmers

Have you started knitting? I know some of you have… and from what I’ve seen it so far, it all seems to be going rather well!  

In the meantime, Catriona and I have been turning our heads to the Pop-up Art Exhibition at which Scotland Handknit will be unveiled – hopefully at a preview on Friday evening, 20^th June 2014.

The exhibition is part of a bigger celebration of Scottish culture called ‘Hear the Nation’ (organised by NE Fife Yes Campaign) which will take place on 21^st June 2014 at the Corn Exchange in Cupar, Fife. ‘Hear the Nation’ ? Hm. Ok, we’ll call our exhibition  ‘Here’s the Nation’.

The purpose of the day is to showcase and celebrate Scotland Handknit, one other art installation (more about that another time), and the work of Scottish artists. It won’t harm either if we all have a fun day and raise money for the Yes Campaign.

Like Scotland Handknit, our ethos is inclusivity… building bridges between the political divide. There are three other strands, besides Scotland Handknit: a

commercial art exhibition, at which invited artists will exhibit, a sale of donated A5 sized artworks ( £25.00 each), and lastly, craft stalls involving a sample of our best local potters, jewellery makers, woodworkers… if we have room for that.

The theme of the exhibition is ‘Scotland’ in its widest interpretation (landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, myth, reality, dream, folk frae aw the airts –all Jack Tamson’s bairns).

A number of high profile artists have agreed to exhibit – how exciting!  (Scotland Handknit will be in good company) We also hope to have an on-line preview of work, from about six weeks before.

The only problem is that we haven’t been able to hire exhibition boards yet, and obviously can’t have an art exhibition without exhibition boards. We’ve decided if we can’t get them by 14^th February we’ll have to abandon the whole thing… but surely it won’t come to that!

We’re also going to invite ‘yes’ supporting artists to donate A5 sized original works of art (on card supplied by us), for sale at £25.00. These will be presented together, as another exhibit in the exhibition.

We’re going to need money to get things set up – one local knitter has volunteered to make up quiz sheets, and is selling Scottish lochs (well not the actual lochs, just their names) for £1.00 each on her ‘Loch Aye the Noo’ cards (Winner gets £10.00, Scotland Handknit gets £22.00 for every card). Another local knitter is going to try to get sponsorship from businesses… fingers crossed about that.

Another possibility – I’ve 100 copies of my new novel Blackthorn, which I want to donate. It’s a fictional biography of the poet Marion Angus  - about a clash between love and duty, about circumstances (poverty and homelessness) that still blight the lives of women today, and about fate intervening to change the ‘best laid plans’. The price is £9.99 and the total cover price will be donated to Scotland Handknit.

Read about it here:               http://www.aimeechalmers.com/blackthorn/4580573153

And buy from my shop page if you’re interested.

Good luck with the knitting!