Sizzle

As a proud Briton who is also a patriotic Scot I am pleased that an artwork of mine hangs within the seat of power of Scotland. “Sizzle”, was the unanimous choice of the Art Committee for a piece of work for the meeting lounge in St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh, the headquarters building of the Scottish Government.

“Sizzle” represents my vision of the new Scotland. It embodies all that is good about our nation; the intensity of the people, our enthusiasm for life, the entrepreneurial fervor which exists in each and every Scot to create and invent. We are a small country with a big heart; a small country but one that has influence throughout the world because Scots have always gone forth and flourished.

The brightness and freshness of the colours is the opposite of the weather in which we Scots have to live and work daily. I love my country but the weather is, to put it mildly, somewhat inclement. Our long winter is one of the darkest and hardest in Europe but we are kept warm by the patriotic fire that burns deep within and will never be extinguished. In my choice of colours I portrayed what is in our hearts and minds, not what our weather is like. Thus, the work is composed of bold vivid oranges, purples, blues and greens not the dull dreich slate greys of a Scottish winter – or even summer!

The wall hanging is one of my larger works and called for many hours of intensive labour, hand-dying the fabrics, machine embroidering, and slashing at the material to produce textural effects. Still, I believe the end result made the labour worthwhile and I like to imagine that my work brightens up the lives of our politicians and makes them think happy thoughts about how best to help our people.