Golden Repair
GOSSIP is pleased to be working with Tolbooth Stirling.
An exhibition of contemporary art.
GOSSIP Collective presents ‘Golden Repair’ our annual group exhibition. With a starting point or Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, artists have drawn on themes of community, belonging and balance to respond creatively. A multidisciplinary exhibition, featuring textiles, painting, film and printmaking, ‘Golden Repair’ seeks to explore and create a dialogue with the audience about how we move forwards when things happen in our lives, both personally, and collectively-as a community. Celebrating imperfection, bringing fragments back together and bringing a harmony and balance to objects and artworks in a way that celebrates their stories.
An exhibition of contemporary art.
GOSSIP Collective presents ‘Golden Repair’ our annual group exhibition. With a starting point or Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, artists have drawn on themes of community, belonging and balance to respond creatively. A multidisciplinary exhibition, featuring textiles, painting, film and printmaking, ‘Golden Repair’ seeks to explore and create a dialogue with the audience about how we move forwards when things happen in our lives, both personally, and collectively-as a community. Celebrating imperfection, bringing fragments back together and bringing a harmony and balance to objects and artworks in a way that celebrates their stories.
For information about the artwork on display see below.
Amy Crawley-Wise
Description
Exploring the idea of different types of rest and repair has led me to reflect on my art practice over the years. Drawing, layering and stitching together ideas, creating mixed media globes that hang in space. Elements of illustration, textiles and printmaking are incorporated to reflect a holistic sense of the body and restorative states.
Artists Statement
Amy studied Mixed Media Fine Art at the University of Westminster, graduating in 2007. She completed her PGCE (PCET) in Cardiff University in 2011 and taught art in colleges for 5 years. In 2014; alongside teaching; Amy began her Masters in Art Psychotherapy at the University of South Wales, graduating in 2017 and moving to Scotland that same year. Since relocating, she has worked in hospitals, schools and in the community with all ages and stages of life.
Title of work: Rewilding
Medium: Thread painting
Exploring the idea of different types of rest and repair has led me to reflect on my art practice over the years. Drawing, layering and stitching together ideas, creating mixed media globes that hang in space. Elements of illustration, textiles and printmaking are incorporated to reflect a holistic sense of the body and restorative states.
Artists Statement
Amy studied Mixed Media Fine Art at the University of Westminster, graduating in 2007. She completed her PGCE (PCET) in Cardiff University in 2011 and taught art in colleges for 5 years. In 2014; alongside teaching; Amy began her Masters in Art Psychotherapy at the University of South Wales, graduating in 2017 and moving to Scotland that same year. Since relocating, she has worked in hospitals, schools and in the community with all ages and stages of life.
- I am drawn to the tactile nature of artmaking and after giving birth to my daughter, I turned to the embroidery stitches learnt during childhood. Sometimes fragmented, striving to find threads to connect, I explore different mediums based on regulation. My work is both sculptural and narrative and aims to share the imaginative and experiential material that lives in my body.
Title of work: Rewilding
Medium: Thread painting
Media Links:
www.instagram.com/body_obscurus
www.instagram.com/body_obscurus
Ann Shaw
Description
The power of art to act as a “golden repair” for a community, is celebrated in this video of the farewell party to David Harding on board the Waverley paddle steamer with a gathering of artists, staff, students and members of the Scottish art community.
Harding, founder and director of the world-famous Department of Environmental Art Department at Glasgow School of Art, believed that the “site is 50 per cent of the art work”.
He believed that placing art in public spaces contributed half of its value, as it could foster community unity—celebrating, healing, and inspiring people across generations.
He saw it as the “golden repair” running through society, and this community of artists gathered to celebrate Harding’s philosophy with music, song, food and friendship- artists who will embody his influence down future generations.
Running through the film is “The Song of the Clyde “sung by artist and musician Ross Sinclair one of Scotland’s leading contemporary artists and a member of GSA staff. The song becomes both soundtrack and structure: a melodic thread binding river, memory, pedagogy and place.
It’s a tribute to the power of art to act as a golden repair for a damaged society.
Artists Statement
I believe we all have the potential to be creative. The advent of new technologies makes it accessible for everyone, offering new ways to say something new about the world we live in. I work across a variety of fields with an emphasis on storytelling and communication and have developed an interest in working with A.I. I do this to seek out new ways of looking at the world and to say something new about it= finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Title of work: “The Song of the Clyde”
Medium: Video presentation
The power of art to act as a “golden repair” for a community, is celebrated in this video of the farewell party to David Harding on board the Waverley paddle steamer with a gathering of artists, staff, students and members of the Scottish art community.
Harding, founder and director of the world-famous Department of Environmental Art Department at Glasgow School of Art, believed that the “site is 50 per cent of the art work”.
He believed that placing art in public spaces contributed half of its value, as it could foster community unity—celebrating, healing, and inspiring people across generations.
He saw it as the “golden repair” running through society, and this community of artists gathered to celebrate Harding’s philosophy with music, song, food and friendship- artists who will embody his influence down future generations.
Running through the film is “The Song of the Clyde “sung by artist and musician Ross Sinclair one of Scotland’s leading contemporary artists and a member of GSA staff. The song becomes both soundtrack and structure: a melodic thread binding river, memory, pedagogy and place.
It’s a tribute to the power of art to act as a golden repair for a damaged society.
Artists Statement
I believe we all have the potential to be creative. The advent of new technologies makes it accessible for everyone, offering new ways to say something new about the world we live in. I work across a variety of fields with an emphasis on storytelling and communication and have developed an interest in working with A.I. I do this to seek out new ways of looking at the world and to say something new about it= finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Title of work: “The Song of the Clyde”
Medium: Video presentation
Media Links:
www.annshaw.co.uk
Social media handle(s): @ www.facebook.com/annshaw2017
instagram@annshaw201, www.YouTube@annshaw2989
www.annshaw.co.uk
Social media handle(s): @ www.facebook.com/annshaw2017
instagram@annshaw201, www.YouTube@annshaw2989
Audrey McMenemy
Description
I think of the broken pieces, the way our differences are being used to separate rather than bring us joy. I am thinking of refugees, war, and inability to listen to others - “Golden Repair” immediately identifies a method of bringing us together. It seems right that the repair itself should be made of something beautiful and precious. The use of stitch is key to this work. I make my own media, take things apart, use layers and methods of connection to identify the beauty of repair.
Artists Statement
I return to the power of colour, texture, construct, and deconstruction. My studies during the punk era have resulted in a love of cutting, burning, revealing what is below. I enjoy working with recycled materials, producing collaborative art works, repurposing early pieces, and connecting images to words, and to the spirit of humanity.
I respond to materials; I let them have their say.
Title of work: A Thread Runs Through
Medium: Mixed Media
I think of the broken pieces, the way our differences are being used to separate rather than bring us joy. I am thinking of refugees, war, and inability to listen to others - “Golden Repair” immediately identifies a method of bringing us together. It seems right that the repair itself should be made of something beautiful and precious. The use of stitch is key to this work. I make my own media, take things apart, use layers and methods of connection to identify the beauty of repair.
Artists Statement
I return to the power of colour, texture, construct, and deconstruction. My studies during the punk era have resulted in a love of cutting, burning, revealing what is below. I enjoy working with recycled materials, producing collaborative art works, repurposing early pieces, and connecting images to words, and to the spirit of humanity.
I respond to materials; I let them have their say.
Title of work: A Thread Runs Through
Medium: Mixed Media
David Barbara
Description
Poor people, there life is very basic. There land has been reclaimed by the sea / river due to climate change. They live as close community as possible and support each other.
These are all over the world, South America, Africa, South Pacific, India. Poor houses on stilts—often referred to as informal stilt settlements, water slums, or shantytowns—are most commonly found in the coastal lagoons, river deltas, and swampy bays of Southeast Asia, West Africa, and South America. Makoko (Lagos, Nigeria): Often called the "Venice of Africa, Kampong Phluk & Tonle Sap (Cambodia).
Entire rural villages are built on soaring, tall stilts to withstand a massive 10-foot rise in water levels during the annual rainy season.
A comment on the of society and the communities we build to survive together.
Artists Statement
For me, I associate being an artist with moments; 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there. Big thoughts and best laid plans. Little bursts of energy in my weekly routine. Sculpture or model making is passion of mine. Crating something from nothing is exiting especially when you combine working with everyday recycled materials.
I like to incorporate objects that hold my fascination directly in my work, as playful surfaces for my innermost thoughts, ideas, confessions…I’ve found inspiration over the years from lots of other places outside of the art world that scratch my creative itch in a similar way. Construction. Cake decorating. Home decor.
Title of work: Living on a Prayer
Medium: Mixed Media Sculpture
Poor people, there life is very basic. There land has been reclaimed by the sea / river due to climate change. They live as close community as possible and support each other.
These are all over the world, South America, Africa, South Pacific, India. Poor houses on stilts—often referred to as informal stilt settlements, water slums, or shantytowns—are most commonly found in the coastal lagoons, river deltas, and swampy bays of Southeast Asia, West Africa, and South America. Makoko (Lagos, Nigeria): Often called the "Venice of Africa, Kampong Phluk & Tonle Sap (Cambodia).
Entire rural villages are built on soaring, tall stilts to withstand a massive 10-foot rise in water levels during the annual rainy season.
A comment on the of society and the communities we build to survive together.
Artists Statement
For me, I associate being an artist with moments; 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there. Big thoughts and best laid plans. Little bursts of energy in my weekly routine. Sculpture or model making is passion of mine. Crating something from nothing is exiting especially when you combine working with everyday recycled materials.
I like to incorporate objects that hold my fascination directly in my work, as playful surfaces for my innermost thoughts, ideas, confessions…I’ve found inspiration over the years from lots of other places outside of the art world that scratch my creative itch in a similar way. Construction. Cake decorating. Home decor.
Title of work: Living on a Prayer
Medium: Mixed Media Sculpture
Eloise Kerr
Description
The piece Repair responds to the theme of Golden Repair in the context of the Japanese art of Kintsugi; taking inspiration from the ethos of embracing authentic outcomes and the resilience of imperfections. This is a meditative painting that documents a passage of time while having a simple intention in mind. The drawing records natural fluctuations in human motion and direction; with subtle, corrective movements that are made in order to return to the intention.
Artists Statement
Eloise Kerr is a Scottish artist based in Stirling. Eloise graduated from The Glasgow School of Art in 2006 with a BA (Hons) Design and she began working in contemporary art disciplines in 2013, primarily specialising in drawing and mixed media.
I am interested in pushing the boundaries of drawing and I employ various methods in my practice, from meditative mark-making to timed and “blind” observational studies. Intuitive mark-making is integral to my abstract work and using this to form a visual language often becomes part of a therapeutic process for me. My work is led by the tactile qualities of the materials and I am particularly fascinated with exploring the primitive roots of mark-making.
Title of work: I Make a Golden Net
Medium: Watercolour and oil on paper
The piece Repair responds to the theme of Golden Repair in the context of the Japanese art of Kintsugi; taking inspiration from the ethos of embracing authentic outcomes and the resilience of imperfections. This is a meditative painting that documents a passage of time while having a simple intention in mind. The drawing records natural fluctuations in human motion and direction; with subtle, corrective movements that are made in order to return to the intention.
Artists Statement
Eloise Kerr is a Scottish artist based in Stirling. Eloise graduated from The Glasgow School of Art in 2006 with a BA (Hons) Design and she began working in contemporary art disciplines in 2013, primarily specialising in drawing and mixed media.
I am interested in pushing the boundaries of drawing and I employ various methods in my practice, from meditative mark-making to timed and “blind” observational studies. Intuitive mark-making is integral to my abstract work and using this to form a visual language often becomes part of a therapeutic process for me. My work is led by the tactile qualities of the materials and I am particularly fascinated with exploring the primitive roots of mark-making.
Title of work: I Make a Golden Net
Medium: Watercolour and oil on paper
Media links: @ eloisekerrartist
Hannah Uttley
Description
In 2023 I was funded by Creative Scotland to deliver a participatory aerial and arts project for women and non-binary people with experience of trauma. The aim of this project, entitled Wingspan, was to give participants to opportunity to explore their stories in a supportive group and create art inspired by their experiences. I aimed to create a space in which participants felt safe enough to take risks and step outside their comfort zone. Crucially, the project gave them the opportunity to expand their windows of tolerance and start to change the narratives they had about themselves, their value and their resilience.
At the end of the project the group created a film which I am entering for submission into this exhibition. I believe the project and film itself embody the theme of Golden Repair. The entire project was about how connecting with others through art and movement can play a key part in recovery from trauma and mental ill health. The film is entitled “Leaf” and features original text and movement by the participants.
Artists Statement
I am a multi-disciplinary artist based in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire. I originally trained as an actor and went on to work as a FE lecturer and youth theatre leader before moving into participatory theatre, movement and film. The central theme to my work is how the arts can be a tool for empowerment, healing and how it can give a voice to those who are often silenced and unheard. I want to give folks a platform to tell their stories in their own words. I use movement, aerial dance, theatre and film alongside spoken word. I believe that through the arts we can begin to unpick and explore our own histories, when we do this work collectively we also gain the benefits of community and connection with others. In my work I see the power that comes from sharing our stories with others on our own terms. I acknowledge that I have a certain level of privilege and I strive to use this privilege to empower others whose voices and experiences are not well heard. In 2024 I became a parent for the first time and my experience of loneliness and postpartum anxiety continue to shape my practice.
Title of work: Leaf
Medium: Film
In 2023 I was funded by Creative Scotland to deliver a participatory aerial and arts project for women and non-binary people with experience of trauma. The aim of this project, entitled Wingspan, was to give participants to opportunity to explore their stories in a supportive group and create art inspired by their experiences. I aimed to create a space in which participants felt safe enough to take risks and step outside their comfort zone. Crucially, the project gave them the opportunity to expand their windows of tolerance and start to change the narratives they had about themselves, their value and their resilience.
At the end of the project the group created a film which I am entering for submission into this exhibition. I believe the project and film itself embody the theme of Golden Repair. The entire project was about how connecting with others through art and movement can play a key part in recovery from trauma and mental ill health. The film is entitled “Leaf” and features original text and movement by the participants.
Artists Statement
I am a multi-disciplinary artist based in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire. I originally trained as an actor and went on to work as a FE lecturer and youth theatre leader before moving into participatory theatre, movement and film. The central theme to my work is how the arts can be a tool for empowerment, healing and how it can give a voice to those who are often silenced and unheard. I want to give folks a platform to tell their stories in their own words. I use movement, aerial dance, theatre and film alongside spoken word. I believe that through the arts we can begin to unpick and explore our own histories, when we do this work collectively we also gain the benefits of community and connection with others. In my work I see the power that comes from sharing our stories with others on our own terms. I acknowledge that I have a certain level of privilege and I strive to use this privilege to empower others whose voices and experiences are not well heard. In 2024 I became a parent for the first time and my experience of loneliness and postpartum anxiety continue to shape my practice.
Title of work: Leaf
Medium: Film
Ian Keane
Description
All fragments of pottery pieces I found during COVID walks made into a mosaic of a familiar path.
Part landscape, history, story told over centuries that culminates in the breakdown of our own society at that time in 2020. I face the idea of broken Britain directly. By saying everything will be ok that indeed everything will settle stronger than ever. We have been breaking and fixing forever.
I found the pottery in every stream in the Ochils, especially in the industrial rivers. The first layer is the clearance from the rural to urban and the abandoned ‘bric-a-brac’ of life. Society broke from rural to urban jobs but was made stronger with improvements in living standards and the birth of the modern world. Emerging Industry(mills), the change to coal and the vast pottery industry in Alloa. How that declined, broke and changed-Forth Valley endured. Society broke during Covid, but we found ways to reinvent ourselves. How that event tied the gathering of the pieces together. Allowing it to happen. This process of breaking changing and evolving continues here in the Forth Valley even to this day.
I am holding on to all these pieces, parts of me, that I have found. I've not felt like myself for a long time. Undertaking the work is personal endeavour. It states that I am, that we are all broken. You never lose the capacity to reinvent yourself. Bringing this artwork together is giving myself permission to heal stronger.
Each piece is like a link to the past that tells a story. Each piece a memory of walking with loved ones.
I couldn’t throw the pieces away, so now I will make something new.
Artists Statement
A Reader, Fantasist, Librarian and Walker. Finding equal pleasure in the escapes of reading and walking in the natural landscape.
I aim to find escape and some healing by developing my artwork. I am an outsider artist hoping to combine elements of my exploration of the landscape with storytelling.
Title of work: Light on Dumyat
Medium: Kintsugi Mosaic
All fragments of pottery pieces I found during COVID walks made into a mosaic of a familiar path.
Part landscape, history, story told over centuries that culminates in the breakdown of our own society at that time in 2020. I face the idea of broken Britain directly. By saying everything will be ok that indeed everything will settle stronger than ever. We have been breaking and fixing forever.
I found the pottery in every stream in the Ochils, especially in the industrial rivers. The first layer is the clearance from the rural to urban and the abandoned ‘bric-a-brac’ of life. Society broke from rural to urban jobs but was made stronger with improvements in living standards and the birth of the modern world. Emerging Industry(mills), the change to coal and the vast pottery industry in Alloa. How that declined, broke and changed-Forth Valley endured. Society broke during Covid, but we found ways to reinvent ourselves. How that event tied the gathering of the pieces together. Allowing it to happen. This process of breaking changing and evolving continues here in the Forth Valley even to this day.
I am holding on to all these pieces, parts of me, that I have found. I've not felt like myself for a long time. Undertaking the work is personal endeavour. It states that I am, that we are all broken. You never lose the capacity to reinvent yourself. Bringing this artwork together is giving myself permission to heal stronger.
Each piece is like a link to the past that tells a story. Each piece a memory of walking with loved ones.
I couldn’t throw the pieces away, so now I will make something new.
Artists Statement
A Reader, Fantasist, Librarian and Walker. Finding equal pleasure in the escapes of reading and walking in the natural landscape.
I aim to find escape and some healing by developing my artwork. I am an outsider artist hoping to combine elements of my exploration of the landscape with storytelling.
Title of work: Light on Dumyat
Medium: Kintsugi Mosaic
Jenna Glancy
Description
For this mixed media collage, I worked with repurposed pieces of broken, scrap wood, reflecting the theme of repair. Inspired by photographs taken during a memorable visit to Gothenburg during peak festival season. This collage is informed by the striking architecture of Gothenburg, particularly the contrast between expressive graffiti and the elegant historic buildings. Rather than appearing destructive, the graffiti seemed to exist in harmony with the surrounding environment. This work explores the relationship between urban life and natural growth through depictions of wild flowers scattered throughout the city.
Artists Statement
Jenna Glancy Is a graduate from the Glasgow school of art where she completed her BA (hons) in Textile Design. She specializes in printed textile design to create surface pattern. She translates photographic and observational research into graphic motifs and repeat pattern. Her practice emphasizes sustainability through upcycling and material re-use, with textiles designed for expressive, club-inspired fashion.
Title of work: Göte
Medium: Mixed media collage onto wood
For this mixed media collage, I worked with repurposed pieces of broken, scrap wood, reflecting the theme of repair. Inspired by photographs taken during a memorable visit to Gothenburg during peak festival season. This collage is informed by the striking architecture of Gothenburg, particularly the contrast between expressive graffiti and the elegant historic buildings. Rather than appearing destructive, the graffiti seemed to exist in harmony with the surrounding environment. This work explores the relationship between urban life and natural growth through depictions of wild flowers scattered throughout the city.
Artists Statement
Jenna Glancy Is a graduate from the Glasgow school of art where she completed her BA (hons) in Textile Design. She specializes in printed textile design to create surface pattern. She translates photographic and observational research into graphic motifs and repeat pattern. Her practice emphasizes sustainability through upcycling and material re-use, with textiles designed for expressive, club-inspired fashion.
- My work is informed by urban markings, typography and structural forms. Taking an experimental approach to printing I work freely with screens, stencils, bonding and digital processes, exploring unconventional combinations to interpret the visual qualities in my research. My resolved works consists of compositional, textural and graphic printed textiles on a range of base fabrics, incorporating sustainability through reuse of 2nd hand fabrics and recycled off cuts.
Title of work: Göte
Medium: Mixed media collage onto wood
Media Links: @jennaglancytexdes (Instagram)
Kyle Blain
Description
This painting depicts a family gathering during my first birthday party in 2003, a moment of shared celebration across generations. The scene is informal and slightly chaotic, centred around a birthday table in a modest domestic setting. Figures lean toward one another, laughing, touching, exchanging attention. In response to the theme of ‘Golden Repair’, I am interested in how communal moments act as a form of social repair. While daily life can be fractured by personal struggles, financial pressure, or wider social divisions, gatherings such as this create temporary spaces of connection. They offer pause, warmth, and continuity. Rather than focusing on visible damage, this work considers repair as something relational. The act of coming together, sharing food, celebrating milestones, and witnessing one another becomes a quiet mending of everyday strain. These moments may not erase difficulty, but they reinforce bonds and restore a sense of belonging. The “gold” within this painting is not a material element but a metaphor, located in the exchanges between figures, in touch, laughter, and shared attention. This piece is part of a wider series titled ”Common people” that documents everyday working class life.
Artists Statement
Kyle Blain is a Scottish painter from Clackmannan. Working primarily with emulsion, acrylic and spray paint, his practice centres on memory, class and family life. His paintings often explore the quiet significance of ordinary moments, kitchens, living rooms, childhood snapshots, presenting them at a scale that gives weight and permanence to everyday lives. Blain studied Fine Art at the City of Glasgow College before progressing to the Glasgow School of Art. Alongside his studio practice, he works closely with schools, delivering inclusive art workshops that connect young people with creativity through familiar cultural references.
Title of work: My First Birthday
Medium: Emulsion and acrylic on canvas.
This painting depicts a family gathering during my first birthday party in 2003, a moment of shared celebration across generations. The scene is informal and slightly chaotic, centred around a birthday table in a modest domestic setting. Figures lean toward one another, laughing, touching, exchanging attention. In response to the theme of ‘Golden Repair’, I am interested in how communal moments act as a form of social repair. While daily life can be fractured by personal struggles, financial pressure, or wider social divisions, gatherings such as this create temporary spaces of connection. They offer pause, warmth, and continuity. Rather than focusing on visible damage, this work considers repair as something relational. The act of coming together, sharing food, celebrating milestones, and witnessing one another becomes a quiet mending of everyday strain. These moments may not erase difficulty, but they reinforce bonds and restore a sense of belonging. The “gold” within this painting is not a material element but a metaphor, located in the exchanges between figures, in touch, laughter, and shared attention. This piece is part of a wider series titled ”Common people” that documents everyday working class life.
Artists Statement
Kyle Blain is a Scottish painter from Clackmannan. Working primarily with emulsion, acrylic and spray paint, his practice centres on memory, class and family life. His paintings often explore the quiet significance of ordinary moments, kitchens, living rooms, childhood snapshots, presenting them at a scale that gives weight and permanence to everyday lives. Blain studied Fine Art at the City of Glasgow College before progressing to the Glasgow School of Art. Alongside his studio practice, he works closely with schools, delivering inclusive art workshops that connect young people with creativity through familiar cultural references.
- My practice explores memory, class and the emotional weight of ordinary life. I work from found photographs, family archives and personal recollections, using painting to reframe everyday working-class experiences with care and permanence. The images I’m drawn to are often informal and unremarkable at first glance. I’m interested in how these small, private moments hold universal meaning. Scale plays an important role in my work. By enlarging intimate snapshots, I shift them from disposable imagery into something more monumental, asking the viewer to slow down and reconsider what is worth remembering. Ultimately, my paintings are about dignity and recognition. They position working-class lives more than just background detail and deliver them as subjects deserving attention, complexity and presence.
Title of work: My First Birthday
Medium: Emulsion and acrylic on canvas.
Lee Avery
Description
My latest series of work After Shift explores themes of labour, memory and emotional endurance through industrial landscapes and atmospheric light. For Golden Repair, I explore quiet moments of renewal within industrial environments: the end of a shift, stepping outside into the night air, the warmth of returning home and brief encounters of light within darkness.
Artists Statement
Having studied public and community art in the 1990s at Forth Valley and Glasgow, I recently returned both to my hometown and to painting after many years working outside formal art practice.
My work is rooted in the industrial landscapes of central Scotland and explores atmosphere, memory and the emotional texture of ordinary places.
Title of work: After Shift
Medium: Oil on canvas.
My latest series of work After Shift explores themes of labour, memory and emotional endurance through industrial landscapes and atmospheric light. For Golden Repair, I explore quiet moments of renewal within industrial environments: the end of a shift, stepping outside into the night air, the warmth of returning home and brief encounters of light within darkness.
Artists Statement
Having studied public and community art in the 1990s at Forth Valley and Glasgow, I recently returned both to my hometown and to painting after many years working outside formal art practice.
My work is rooted in the industrial landscapes of central Scotland and explores atmosphere, memory and the emotional texture of ordinary places.
Title of work: After Shift
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Lesley McDermott
Description
‘The desire to make the world a better place is as old as humanity’ Lesley’s work explores themes or repair, restoration and renovation that are both symbolic and practical manifestations of the self as an individual and as social responsibility. Work exploring the chances of recovery in a toxic culture, prospects of renewal when we live with long-standing oppressive regimes and with dramatic destruction of natural resources. Can we repair what is broken? Health, relationships and society?
Artists Statement
I have a passion for the role that creativity plays in our society, and in helping build relationships. Inherent to my approach is an active interest in diversity and inclusion, I am proactive in facilitating professional engagement and developing creative networks. Alongside this, I have taught Art in colleges, schools, and many community settings. Since graduating in 2021 from GSA with a Masters in Fine Art Practice, I am focused on developing my community-based practice methodology in collaborative projects.
Title(s) of work: Fragments
Medium: Mixed Media
‘The desire to make the world a better place is as old as humanity’ Lesley’s work explores themes or repair, restoration and renovation that are both symbolic and practical manifestations of the self as an individual and as social responsibility. Work exploring the chances of recovery in a toxic culture, prospects of renewal when we live with long-standing oppressive regimes and with dramatic destruction of natural resources. Can we repair what is broken? Health, relationships and society?
Artists Statement
I have a passion for the role that creativity plays in our society, and in helping build relationships. Inherent to my approach is an active interest in diversity and inclusion, I am proactive in facilitating professional engagement and developing creative networks. Alongside this, I have taught Art in colleges, schools, and many community settings. Since graduating in 2021 from GSA with a Masters in Fine Art Practice, I am focused on developing my community-based practice methodology in collaborative projects.
Title(s) of work: Fragments
Medium: Mixed Media
Libby Yule
Description
I have taken the theme of Golden repair as images of how things past fade into the memory. These mono prints show how memory is not a static form but a fluid process with images changing, fading and returning. Often, images are very altered from our original memory/ concept. Are these memories accurate or not? Perhaps what we make them into, coming back in a different form. I also am interested in the layering that occurs in mono prints which evokes the processes.
Artists Statement
Libby studied textile design at the Scottish College of Textiles and went on to further study Art History and English. Her art practice is varied. As a painter and batik artist she has taken part in solo and mixed exhibitions over a number of years. Libby’s most recent solo exhibition “The River and the Castle” is at The Dunblane Gallery and Museum in May 2026.
“My interests have evolved through working as an artist in the community and my own personal art journey. My involvement in Open Studios, GOSSIP, exhibiting and tutoring has developed my understanding of how art can help our perceptions of ourselves and the world”
Title of work: series “Golden Repair “Memory” ( 1to 5 numbered)
Medium: Mono prints
Dimensions (H × W × D, cm): 35x28 cm
I have taken the theme of Golden repair as images of how things past fade into the memory. These mono prints show how memory is not a static form but a fluid process with images changing, fading and returning. Often, images are very altered from our original memory/ concept. Are these memories accurate or not? Perhaps what we make them into, coming back in a different form. I also am interested in the layering that occurs in mono prints which evokes the processes.
Artists Statement
Libby studied textile design at the Scottish College of Textiles and went on to further study Art History and English. Her art practice is varied. As a painter and batik artist she has taken part in solo and mixed exhibitions over a number of years. Libby’s most recent solo exhibition “The River and the Castle” is at The Dunblane Gallery and Museum in May 2026.
“My interests have evolved through working as an artist in the community and my own personal art journey. My involvement in Open Studios, GOSSIP, exhibiting and tutoring has developed my understanding of how art can help our perceptions of ourselves and the world”
Title of work: series “Golden Repair “Memory” ( 1to 5 numbered)
Medium: Mono prints
Dimensions (H × W × D, cm): 35x28 cm
Media Links:
Facebook : Libby Yule artist
Facebook : Libby Yule artist
Lynne Knox
and Description
Due to aphantasia, I only have fragments of childhood memory. The Golden Thread will bring those pieces together to form one whole: likely a layered and abstract piece, using tissue, charcoal, gold leaf, fabric, threads and such like.
To accompany this, Alex has composed a new work exploring the breaking and rebuilding of music, this will be heard around the exhibition space. The Golden Thread in this instance will be created through taking theoretical and mathematical concepts of music serialism and bringing it back to hormonal and musical convention.
Artists Statement
Textile artist, Lynne Knox grew up in Menstrie with encouraging parents who built her first studio in a bedroom cupboard. Menstrie, sitting tucked into the Ochils, was a great place to grow up and inspired much of Lynne's passions. At school ‘The Local Area’ inspired her SYS Art Portfolio which saw her accepted to study Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA).
Following graduation, Lynne returned to Clackmannanshire and worked in community youth theatre, helping design and build both props and scenery.
Family life changed priorities for Lynne, art became seeking personal growth and identity. Life drawing classes and a return to ECA for various textile related short courses unlocked a new passion and confidence.
Lynne still lives locally and works out of Lime Tree House in Alloa. She continues to experiment, most recently joining musician husband Alex for collaborative projects exploring musical and visual composition.
Title of work: Golden Thread
Medium: mixed media textiles (framed) and music
Due to aphantasia, I only have fragments of childhood memory. The Golden Thread will bring those pieces together to form one whole: likely a layered and abstract piece, using tissue, charcoal, gold leaf, fabric, threads and such like.
To accompany this, Alex has composed a new work exploring the breaking and rebuilding of music, this will be heard around the exhibition space. The Golden Thread in this instance will be created through taking theoretical and mathematical concepts of music serialism and bringing it back to hormonal and musical convention.
Artists Statement
Textile artist, Lynne Knox grew up in Menstrie with encouraging parents who built her first studio in a bedroom cupboard. Menstrie, sitting tucked into the Ochils, was a great place to grow up and inspired much of Lynne's passions. At school ‘The Local Area’ inspired her SYS Art Portfolio which saw her accepted to study Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA).
Following graduation, Lynne returned to Clackmannanshire and worked in community youth theatre, helping design and build both props and scenery.
Family life changed priorities for Lynne, art became seeking personal growth and identity. Life drawing classes and a return to ECA for various textile related short courses unlocked a new passion and confidence.
Lynne still lives locally and works out of Lime Tree House in Alloa. She continues to experiment, most recently joining musician husband Alex for collaborative projects exploring musical and visual composition.
Title of work: Golden Thread
Medium: mixed media textiles (framed) and music
Media Links:
@ weemusicalsketches
@ weemusicalsketches
Michelle Briggs
Description
My piece examines the trade off’s inherent in a dystopian world that promises continuous comfort and fearlessness at the expense of essential human experiences. It probes the temptation to surrender to a pain free existence, set against the richness and depth that emotional pain and struggle can bring. The artwork invites viewers to reflect on the compromises between security and freedom, comfort and authenticity, and the very essence of human nature. I sought to convey the tension between the allure of a 'perfect' world, with no pain, no heartbreak, and no more destruction of mankind and human induced environmental damage at the cost of the loss of individuality, creativity, and emotional depth that accompanies it. The piece serves as a commentary on the human condition, highlighting the complexities and paradoxes of existence.
Artists Statement
Combining work experience and studies in; Contemporary Art, Public Art, Adult Nursing, Psychology and Philosophy, my work explores the complexities of mental health and human experience. I strive to create artworks that gift an experience to myself and viewers, inviting connection and introspection. My passion lies in sharing my story and fostering connections through art, whilst striving for continuous evolution in my practice.
Title of work: ‘The Push & Pull Effect’
Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas
My piece examines the trade off’s inherent in a dystopian world that promises continuous comfort and fearlessness at the expense of essential human experiences. It probes the temptation to surrender to a pain free existence, set against the richness and depth that emotional pain and struggle can bring. The artwork invites viewers to reflect on the compromises between security and freedom, comfort and authenticity, and the very essence of human nature. I sought to convey the tension between the allure of a 'perfect' world, with no pain, no heartbreak, and no more destruction of mankind and human induced environmental damage at the cost of the loss of individuality, creativity, and emotional depth that accompanies it. The piece serves as a commentary on the human condition, highlighting the complexities and paradoxes of existence.
Artists Statement
Combining work experience and studies in; Contemporary Art, Public Art, Adult Nursing, Psychology and Philosophy, my work explores the complexities of mental health and human experience. I strive to create artworks that gift an experience to myself and viewers, inviting connection and introspection. My passion lies in sharing my story and fostering connections through art, whilst striving for continuous evolution in my practice.
Title of work: ‘The Push & Pull Effect’
Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas
Rebekah Reynolds
Description
Two female figures... sisters, relatives, friends or lovers... left open to interpretation. Their bodies lean toward one another, forming a contained space of intimacy, protection and shared endurance. This work is concerned with the emotional architecture of closeness. I captured a moment where something essential passes between figures; vulnerability, trust, reassurance, and understanding. In this piece, repair is not represented as a visible scar but as a felt exchange. It exists in the tension of proximity, in the decision to turn toward rather than away.
The theme of “Golden Repair” suggests the illumination of fracture. Here, the fracture remains unseen yet acknowledged. Healing does not always arrive as a spectacle; often it is quiet, relational, and reciprocal. The figures do not rescue one another - they steady one another.
Artists Statement
My practice is drawn to suspended instances; gestures, glances, or shared spaces, where meaning and emotion emerge without words. Creating drawings that explore quiet moments, subtle connections, and the narratives that exist in-between. I work slowly and deliberately, layering tone and texture to build depth and presence. My pieces reflect care and attentiveness, mirroring the patience and subtle rhythms of relationships, connection, and observation. Every mark accumulates, creating surfaces that hold nuance and intimacy.
Much of my work is about storytelling. I aim to capture fleeting expressions or interactions that suggest histories, bonds, or possibilities, leaving space for the viewer to enter and imagine their own narratives. At its heart, my practice is concerned with presence, empathy, and relational dynamics — the quiet ways connections form and endure. Through these drawings, I hope to offer encounters that are immersive, reflective, and quietly transformative, celebrating the small, meaningful moments that shape our experience.
Title of work: A Moment Shared
Medium: Limited Edition Giclée print of original graphite drawing
Two female figures... sisters, relatives, friends or lovers... left open to interpretation. Their bodies lean toward one another, forming a contained space of intimacy, protection and shared endurance. This work is concerned with the emotional architecture of closeness. I captured a moment where something essential passes between figures; vulnerability, trust, reassurance, and understanding. In this piece, repair is not represented as a visible scar but as a felt exchange. It exists in the tension of proximity, in the decision to turn toward rather than away.
The theme of “Golden Repair” suggests the illumination of fracture. Here, the fracture remains unseen yet acknowledged. Healing does not always arrive as a spectacle; often it is quiet, relational, and reciprocal. The figures do not rescue one another - they steady one another.
Artists Statement
My practice is drawn to suspended instances; gestures, glances, or shared spaces, where meaning and emotion emerge without words. Creating drawings that explore quiet moments, subtle connections, and the narratives that exist in-between. I work slowly and deliberately, layering tone and texture to build depth and presence. My pieces reflect care and attentiveness, mirroring the patience and subtle rhythms of relationships, connection, and observation. Every mark accumulates, creating surfaces that hold nuance and intimacy.
Much of my work is about storytelling. I aim to capture fleeting expressions or interactions that suggest histories, bonds, or possibilities, leaving space for the viewer to enter and imagine their own narratives. At its heart, my practice is concerned with presence, empathy, and relational dynamics — the quiet ways connections form and endure. Through these drawings, I hope to offer encounters that are immersive, reflective, and quietly transformative, celebrating the small, meaningful moments that shape our experience.
Title of work: A Moment Shared
Medium: Limited Edition Giclée print of original graphite drawing
Tim Shaw
Description
In small-town lore, the ‘closed door’ is a powerful symbol. It’s a boundary between the curated version of a life in public and the authentic, often private moments in our own spaces.
A wide ‘voyeristic’ shot of an old brick apartment building at twilight- each window revealing a different story. Evoking love, loneliness, capturing moments, the glowing gold veins in through the cracks in the buildings exterior and floor boards, physically connecting the separate rooms like a map of shared experience.
Artists Statement
Tim began his creative endeavours in his early 20s, discovering photography and creating images in the darkroom. His passion is to seek out and photograph built environments, stemming from his engineering background. Tim enjoys his ‘creative itch’ and scratches this by pushing the boundaries of what photography can do. His self-taught approach has led to making up his own rules, not being hindered by boundaries set by others and concerning himself with the emotional response of the viewer.
Title of work: Behind Closed Doors
Medium: Composite digital image
In small-town lore, the ‘closed door’ is a powerful symbol. It’s a boundary between the curated version of a life in public and the authentic, often private moments in our own spaces.
A wide ‘voyeristic’ shot of an old brick apartment building at twilight- each window revealing a different story. Evoking love, loneliness, capturing moments, the glowing gold veins in through the cracks in the buildings exterior and floor boards, physically connecting the separate rooms like a map of shared experience.
Artists Statement
Tim began his creative endeavours in his early 20s, discovering photography and creating images in the darkroom. His passion is to seek out and photograph built environments, stemming from his engineering background. Tim enjoys his ‘creative itch’ and scratches this by pushing the boundaries of what photography can do. His self-taught approach has led to making up his own rules, not being hindered by boundaries set by others and concerning himself with the emotional response of the viewer.
Title of work: Behind Closed Doors
Medium: Composite digital image
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