National Collective Member Showcase (February)

Welcome to the first of what will be a monthly showcase of members’ arts contributions. Our independence movement is writing, painting and illustrating Scotland from the ground up, and this space will exemplify how self-expression and self-determination go hand in hand. We would like to offer this space to all our members to express and articulate themselves in interesting visual and imaginative ways.

“Then think of Florence, Paris, London, New York. Nobody visiting them for the first time is a stranger because he’s already visited them in paintings, novels, history books and films. But if a city hasn’t been used by an artist not even the inhabitants live there imaginatively. What is Glasgow to most of us? A house, the place we work, a football park or an original golf course, some pubs and connecting streets. That’s all. No, I’m wrong, there’s also the cinema and the library. And when our imagination needs exercise we use these to visit London, Paris, Rome under the Caesars, the American West at the turn of the century, anywhere but here and now. Imaginatively Glasgow exists as a music-hall song and a few bad novels. That’s all we’ve given to the world outside. It’s all we’ve given to ourselves.”

– Alasdair Gray, Lanark (1981)

Paintings by Muriel Barclay

“2014 is the most important year in the modern history of Scotland. This is our chance to choose to run our own country – to overturn the democratic deficit, to say no to nuclear armaments and illegal foreign wars, to look to a more equal society modelled on that of other small successful northern European countries. The economic statistics show that the Scottish people would be materially advantaged in an independent Scotland. We must not be afraid of change.”
– Muriel Barclay

www.murielbarclay.co.uk

Knitting by Becky Leach

Short film by Andy Summers and Ross Aitchison

Illustration by Suzie McGhee

“The piece ‘Pyne & Glore’ was developed in response to my feeling that the upcoming independence referendum was becoming a political tug-of-war. I feel that the people of Scotland are not being given sufficient channels to be heard throughout the debate. The picture addresses some of the painful events that have happened to Scotland and have been carried through the generations. It also exhibits some of the glorious aspects of Scotland, particularly highlighting the inventiveness and the visionary thinking that runs in our culture, and the natural qualities of the land.”

– Suzie McGhee

Photography of the ‘Knitting for Independence’ project by Robb Mcrae