A prayer for the healing of the nations: An exhibition of large scale drawings at Shetland Museum

An exhibition of large scale charcoal drawings that weep for the world and celebrate the world.
A barrel bomb containing poison gas has just been dropped on a group of school children in Syria and at the same moment a curlew has called out loudly because I walked too close to its nest . Free flying birds symbolising freedom are shown next to images of human decay, bondage and death because, every second of every day all of these things are happening simultaneously.
These drawings explore the tensions, fault lines and connections that exist between seemingly opposing forces in a world that is held in a state of perpetual antitheses.
Humanity has become increasingly disconnected from nature with environmental degradation and pollution at crisis level, war and division the rallying cry from some world leaders and fundamentalist religion seeking to conquer and divide rather than spread unity and love.
The birds in my pictures fly over millions of people displaced and killed by war atrocity and injustice , they fly over land and water killed by pollution and they also fly over the peace and harmony of St Ninians Isle in Shetland where in the winter the waters meet to create a pattern of mystical unity and completeness.
If the birds could tell us how to live what might they say to us as they journey around the globe witnesses to the mad chaotic and fragmented world of humanity.
Under cover of darkness war planes drop their bombs of death but when the light returns the swans are reunited to continue the cycle of life and whilst embracing they say a prayer of healing for the nations.