Blue MacAskill – new artist in residence

Mon, 10 Mar 08 09:51:00

 

Blue MacAskill grew up around Llandrindod Wells in Powys. She trained at Ruskin School of Art in Oxford, and in 2004 graduated from Wimbledon School of Arts with Masters in Fine Art. In 2004 she won an AHRB award to study at Wimbledon and works with installation, film and mixed media arts.

"I am so happy to be on The National Library of Wales Artist-in-Residence for 2008. My connection with the Library stretches far back as my great uncle, Dr E. A. Lewis, was the first professor of Welsh History at Aberystwyth and was very supportive of the Library in the early 20th century; I plan to look up his works, that should get me started" said Blue.

Blue has shown films and exhibited throughout the UK as well as in South Africa, Sweden and Portugal. She was voted the most promising young filmmaker at The Swansea Bay Film Festival and recently exhibited Art-in-Residence at The National Waterfront Museum. The resulting work from this project was shown at the 2006 National Eisteddfod in Swansea.

’I am really looking forward to putting all my past experience into practise and learning about the vast collections here at the Library. During my tenure I hope to look into archives and bring lesser known and undiscovered works to light, so that the schools involved can learn about the Library collections in an original and inspiring way.’

Owen Llywelyn of the National Library’s Education Unit looks forward to working with Blue. “The project aims at bridging the Libraries’ relationship with schools and young people throughout Wales. Blue will work with 4 schools on this residency including Tan y Castell and Nantgaredig primary school, Llanidloes High School and Bro Ddyfi High School .’

You can keep up with Blue, and the pupil’s work, by visiting her online diary on www.bluemacaskill.com.’

 

For More Information:

 

• Siôn Jobbins, NLW Press Office: 01970 632 902  sij@llgc.org.uk
• Education Unit’s Website: dysgle.llgc.org.uk
• Blue MacAskill’s Website: www.bluemacaskill.com

 

 

Blue’s Family Background

Blue was born in Glasgow, and her Scottish family is from the Highlands with her Welsh family from the Montgomeryshire-Radnorshire borders and the Celtic-combination has always been very important to her, from the perspective of personal heritage and professional inspiration and ambition.

Her father, Duncan MacAskill, is an artist too, a painter based in London, and her mother Harriet Cruickshank, runs her own agency in London representing clients who work in theatre, film and TV. They have been great role-models, but important inspiration have been my Grandparents, because I spent a lot of time with them growing up, and storytelling and memories are very powerful instruments, when making reflective biographical work.

‘My grandmother, Curigwen Lewis (named after St Curig), was born in Llangurig in 1905, she was the youngest of 5 with 3 half siblings, so it was a busy house. Her father died soon after she was born, and the need to do well by her family and of course for herself inspired her to become an actress in London, and she studied at RADA when she was only 16.  Curigwen's spirit and talent drove her early career into the heights of fame as she starred at The Old Vic with Lawrence Olivier and Ralph Richardson in 1938 production of Othello, that then toured the world. She was a young Welsh starlet. At that time, Tyrone Guthrie (1900-1971) was resident director at the Old Vic and his two productions, Hamlet (1937) and Othello (1938), became famous for their Freudian interpretations, with Laurence Olivier playing major parts in both. It was during this time that my Grandparents met, Andrew Cruickshank, was in the cast, and caught Curigwen's eye. She was far more famous than my Grandpa, but after they married in 1939, before Grandpa went off to war, she virtually stopped acting altogether. Her elder brother, the Evan Coyd parish Vicar, Ivor Lewis, married them. The guest of honour was her mother Martha Elizabeth Lewis.

So the woman, who had risen from the valley's of Montgomeryshire to the heights of stardom and whom George Bernard Shaw always called her 'the girl with the unpronounceable name' was left behind and raised her three children, Martha-Ann (Actress and Writer) Harriet (my mother, Agent and Producer) and Andrew John (Economist and Poet) instead. We only hope that we have done her proud, it certainly is a legacy to live up to.

My Grandpa's career of course, rose and rose, and is most famous for his role as Dr Angus Cameron in BBC's  A J Cronin's Dr Findlay's Casebook, The television series Dr Finlay's Casebook running from 1959, until 1971. In the 1960s it was one of the most popular series on British television. Grandpa was away a lot filming, and working in the theatre right up until his death in 1988, but he was an extraordinary man. His family were vital, to him. The side we knew most was from discourses with my father about religion and philosophy, on which my Grandfather wrote and published prolifically. My Grandparents kept their public and private lives very separate, Granny turned down This is your Life for Grandpa about 5 or 6 times. Shame because my brother and sister and I wanted to go on TV and talk about him.  So, Granny's fame came between 1925-1940 and Grandpa's after that until 1988. They were just excellent Grandparents to me.

The myth and fantasy surrounding their careers has influenced my early film and photography work as an artist. My surrounds and family are an ongoing fascination in artwork, or a jumping off point.’