Some of my earliest memories involve rocks.
Feeding white pebbles to my Granddad on a beach in Lismore, his Hebridean home, is one of my favourites. Though it is possible I am remembering the photographs.
But now it seems my Father’s profession has rubbed off on me, should I be surprised to find rocks have been an unintentional theme in my work, even when I consider the earlier years of my university career? Unlikely.
As my own understanding (rather than the pygmy borrowed snippets I’ve inherited from Dad) grows the visual patterns and their applications are developing alongside.
From four basic screen exposures made for the Forest Cafe Installation I began to expand my fabric sketchbook and from these explorations into screenprinted pigment patterns onto cotton I came out with a set of works for the Cockburn Museum’s World Book Day event. A few photos.
If you are interested more details are here
Aside from this I have been back to the Grant Institute at Edinburgh University to conduct my own first hand research into rock structures and patterns – this time based in the Southern Uplands from where my Knockengorroch work stems.
Here are some pictures from my research trip, the microscope is inexorably cool.
Magmatic Sulphide Ore from Talnotry, Kirkudbright
The aforementioned microscope, the Zeiss Ultrafot
A specially adapted DSLR
Reflected light 
Zeiss kit, the microscope includes a desk with beautifully designed drawers.
Criffell Granite from the Southern Uplands, Thin Section
Finally, I stripped my screens. The shadow of the previous exposure still lurks on the mesh, not to be forgotten.
