Author: catriona.black@gmail.com

At 7pm on Thursday 17 February I’ll be giving an online lecture about Sly Cooking: 42 irresistible Gaelic words, hosted by the Royal Celtic Society. It’s free to attend (you can make a Paypal donation if you like), and you can register by e-mailing info@royalcelticsociety.scot.

Ever needed a word for the little bits of dust you see in a ray of sunlight? For squeezing a big thing into a small hole? For the noise made by women when they get together? Sly Cooking revives 42 weird and wonderful Gaelic words collected by 19th century priest, poet and folklorist, Fr Allan MacDonald, in South Uist and Eriskay.

The words were originally published by John Lorne Campbell in 1958, among thousands of others gleaned from Fr Allan’s notes, in Gaelic Words and Expressions from South Uist and Eriskay. Captivated by the dictionary, I set out to breathe new life into my favourites with a pocketbook of linocut illustrations.

The project kept growing, and as well as a book, it became an art exhibition and a TV programme. The book is available from Acair, and the original artworks are available to buy in my Etsy shop.

I hope to see you on the 17th!

I’ve made a little YouTube video to show you how I printed my Sly Cooking prints. It’s in Gaelic, with optional English subtitles. Enjoy!

My Sly Cooking exhibition is looking very handsome in Gigha Gallery, and has even attracted the attention of Scottish government minister Michael Russell! I’ll be keeping an extra close eye on his speeches in parliament from now on.

After an amazing year touring the Sly Cooking book and exhibition, I’ve been shortlisted for the Scottish Gaelic Award for arts and culture! It’s an honour, and actually dumbfounding, to be shortlisted alongside theatre company Theatre Gu Leòr and event programmers Ceòl ‘s Craic.

My theory is that Fr Allan is a good man to have on your side. After all, Netty’s tree, which he planted himself in Eriskay, recently became Scotland’s Tree of the Year!

My book and exhibition enjoyed a very warm welcome in Bowmore, as part of the Islay Book Festival. In fact I was told Sly Cooking had become something of a “cult” on the island! I had a lovely time with the children at Bun-Sgoil Bhogha Mòr, and enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm for Fr Allan’s words in the public session too.

The organiser of the festival, Isla Rosser-Owen, told BBC Alba, “I’ve had a number of people come up to me to say, how they’re not Gaelic-speaking at all, they’re not necessarily even interested in Gaelic, but having the exhibition here has inspired them to buy her book and learn a bit more about the words.”

That’s exactly what I want to hear.

The exhibition is off to Tarbert next, for Tarbert Book Festival, 26-28 October 2018.

 

Islay Book Festival is just round the corner. As well as workshops at Bowmore Primary I’ll be talking about Sly Cooking at Ionad Chaluim Chille Ìle with author Donald S Murray. My exhibition is up on the walls too – a first for the book festival.

Sly Cooking looks great on the walls of UPSTAIRS Gallery in Inverness, and in the Inverness Courier too.

My exhibition went down so well at An Lanntair that it’s got itself a tour! Starting out at UPSTAIRS Gallery in Inverness from 30 July to 31 August 2018, it will then travel to Islay Book Festival  in September, where I’ll do a number of events for children and adults. It will then tour to The Gigha Gallery in November, where I am hoping to join it later in the winter.

I am very proud to be part of Ceòlas’s activities in South Uist this December, and not for the first time. I premiered my animation, Pìobairean Bhòrnais, at Ceòlas  in 2003.

The Stornoway Gazette puts my book launch into context here.

My exhibition at An Lanntair is Critic’s Choice in today’s Herald!