Me and pylons!
Pylon Saviours
In March 2019, after drinking booze for 24 hours (not unusual), I decided to give up alcohol. I'd been on and off miserable for decades, in this self-fulfilling prophecy of being rubbish and hungover or pissed. I had tried to give up on many occasions through the years, usually after some sort of mortifying incident or injury, and failed. This time was different. I had experienced all the highs and lows possible involved in partying and while I was on the just about functioning end of addict, I was looking at my life thinking 'Is this it?'.
In order to distract myself from boozing I took to walking in the countryside near my house. I walked through the old Gartcosh Steelworks and beyond into the country where I discovered millions of pylons. They were so proud and majestic and I fell in love. I've always enjoyed large manmade constructions and I loved maths at school, pylons seemed to merge the two, all wonderful geometry. I am a firm believer that the triangle is the best of all the shapes and would win in a fight against any of the other shapes.
After taking so many photos of them I thought to myself 'what am I going to do with all of these pictures'. I painted some abstracts and merged the two (image right is that picture). Two weeks after my last drink I decided I was going to be an artist. I'm not sure if I thought this endeavour was possible but I could not stop myself, being creative was such a driving force. I no longer thought about drinking very often just pylons and bridges and painting etc.
One thing led to another, I was arting all the time, started a college course, learnt loads of stuff, got a hand from Judy Murray, did exhibitions, but most importantly I was the happiest I had ever been. My plan was to apply to art school next but I saw this shop space and it was too perfect not to give it a go (I'm very impulsive). I love so many artists' work and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to show it off. We are so fortunate to have so much talent in Scotland and by the wonders of social media I have become Instagram pals with the most wonderful creatives. The shop will be promoting their work alongside my own projects including PaintsPylons (my super cool art brand).
