First Thought

The forthcoming film café in Timespan looks set to draw a good crowd of young people from Helmsdale and the surrounding communities, and with the positive feedback I’ve already had for this event, I have finally felt comfortable enough to begin looking at my own work a little more closely.

In maintaining a strong relationship between my ‘’own ‘’ work and that developed with the participants of the arts programme, I believe that a mutually beneficial dialogue will grow between the two. Thus, the possibility of one area of the residency being compromised in the endeavour to fully explore the other will not occur.

Nomadic living and environmental stewardship are the main themes that I plan to look at and whether the OURS group chose to follow this line or not, I will try and guide them through their chosen topics in the most environmentally conscious way possible: using recycled materials wherever possible and sourcing equipment and other materials from environmentally sustainable sources. For basic workshop materials I have used the Green Stationary Company who sell an exciting range of products www.greenstat.co.uk


Environmental stewardship – Nomadic living
∗Declining fishing industry in the Highlands.
∗Highland Clearances.
∗New polish settlers.
∗Young people of Helmsdale priced out of homes by wealthy newcomers.
∗International, environmental disasters making the poorest even poorer.
∗Wind turbine farms.
∗Wave turbines.


The idea of creating a space with the young people out of an upturned boat was particularly exciting, given that there is a space very close to the Timespan building and that initial response from Highland Council was not discouraging. I had one particular boat in mind but after closer inspection it was deemed too large a job. The idea however, has no been discarded and if the youth group are interested and a suitable boat can be found, then it may still happen. The scale and ambition of a project like that would need an extremely committed group of youngsters to be involved as well as the skills and support of the wider community.


Dave Illingworth, artist, clockmaker and sailor, inspecting the boat with me at its mooring in Skerray.



Dunrobin Castle, built in the fairytale style...

Visions of inflatable, roaming castles have also entered my head....and then floated away again.