A suite of monoprints in memory of Betty Corrigall.

The work is influenced by and commemorates the white headstone and picket fence in a desolate peat bog high on the Isle of Hoy in the Orkney's where the stormy winds, crashing waves and screeching Curlews provide an eternal soundtrack.

The reality is even darker as Betty sadly took her own life and that of her unborn child due to the social stigma of being unmarried, her boyfriend, a whaler, having deserted her. Her first attempt at suicide, 150 years ago, failed as she was rescued from the harbour, but shame drove her to a second attempt when she successfully hung herself. Suicide prevented her burial in consecrated land.

Her preserved body, embalmed by the peat, was discovered during the Second World War by soldiers burying munitions, my father being one of them. An American benefactor financed her reburial and fiberglass headstone after the War. Visiting the grave for me brought to life the tale my father told me as a child.

April 07 - June 28