HAPPY VIEW

Tweed Street Tour cont...

On Monday Nicola met with Marisa Privitera to discuss her beautiful, quiet images taken along the D6 bus route. Thinking about how the work will be presented to the public, Nicola thought it might be a good to display them on the route by putting them up like lost cat posters on bus stops or lamp posts. It would also be great for the bbeyview Council Service Centre to show them on the newly installed plasma screen where they could be view as the public waits to pay rent or ask for advice, as well as waiting for the bus. Displaying them in this manner would help to embed in the minds of people that art can, and is, happening all around them, touching them as they go about the everyday things. These will be installed on 28th July 2007 ( until Aug 29th) so if you see us say hello. Copies of the photographs will be free to anyone who would like them by leaving their contact details at the Abbeyview Council Service Centre . Marisa visited Abbeyview on Thursday and wrote us a blog below

'Residents may have seen me strolling the streets on my most recent visit to Abbeyview. Some of them may even have been nice enough to let me to take their picture. While I was grateful for their kindness to me, I was even more taken with their kindness to one another.

I began the day waiting for an Abbeyview bound bus in Dunfermline. I noticed an elderly man in the queue and I thought he would make a wonderful subject. He was with a woman, chatting away about how he's been and what he's been doing. When he went for his seat, I spoke to the woman first. I explained who I was and why I was taking pictures. I was under the impression that they were old friends. "Oh, no" she said, "you just talk to folk on the buses, or whenever you see them".



Further on the journey, I noticed more and more how passengers engaged in friendly chat. I'm from a small town in Florida and even there people don't speak to strangers out of the blue. Off the bus, I noticed more and more how strong the sense of community in Abbeyview is. I left wishing it was like that everywhere. Maybe the next time I'm on a bus in Glasgow, I'll engage a fellow passenger in conversation. Somehow, I don't think I'll be met with the same Abbeyview charm. M.P '



R.A.D.A.R Artworks Updates

Nicola also met with Sophia Pankenier. After looking at her proposal (see last week’s blog) Nicola felt that it may not be realistic to involve the young people directly with her art work since Sophia will be travelling to Sweden - New York - California - and around the world. The presence of Sophia in Abbeyview was important to the success of this particular proposal of engaging with the young people but Nicola was still excited by the artwork and wanted the invite to remain open for Sophia to create work. She is now creating 25 drawings of K&K Factors Shop in Abbeyview based on the 161 photos taken by Nicola & Sophia during her visit last week. Her experience of the shop and of Abbeyview will feed into each line drawn and build up to translate this experience. What Sophia chooses to represent on the page will hopefully give the people who regularly visit and a far, this wonderful shop an unseen viewpoint, that of observation over function. The drawings will form a 16-page booklet and be hung in a corner of a room in an apartment in New York. A photograph will be taken and displayed on the blog to connect the artwork with the local and world community. We hope this material will inspire the students of Wood Mill High School to taken a fresh look at their surroundings for the Big Draw in October.



Nicola invited Gerry Love to Dunfermline on Wednesday. The last time Gerry was in Dunfermline was for a football match so this time his focus was less about the game more about the place and people. Starting at the Abbey built in the 12th century was good place to kick off from, since we would be travelling from town out to where one can have the Abbey View from a far. The idea is to create a sound track for the D6 bus route journey from the centre of Dunfermline to Abbeyview, or ‘Happy View’ as the the new sign for the Chinese Take Away states. As part of the Tweed Street Tour. We will see what will happen… watch this space...



The week continued...

... with Dougie from Abbey Signs coming by, to discuss the installation of the artwork design by Nicola, for the outside the Eco house, to give it some artistic identity. The Nicola's Lark drawing will be make up part of the design. (See the blog 'What a Lark' for drawing) He spoke about the quietness of Abbeyview, how it has transformed in the last 20 years. It was a very different place back then and it seems that the buildings are playing catch-up in the regeneration stakes to the community living here.




....editing the text for the SEE EYE Booklet and drawing the images ready to go to print in August.




...and Nicola giving some thought to having a place in the centre of Abbeyview to display the Curiosity Cabinet and other artworks. She met with Stewart Christie ( picture here ) and Linsey Leitch to think this through and discuss the possibility of using one of the empty shops. This would provide a fantastic focus for art that is being created round about, like stepping into a wee haven from the daily grind and somewhere to challenge your mind to wander and ponder. Every mind needs a playground.




Photographs © Nicola Atkinson Does Fly & Marisa Privitera