2019: A Year in Review
With lockdown being in full effect for over a month now and with no foreseeable let up anytime in the near future, I thought perhaps it is the perfect time to reflect back on more exciting times - just for some consistency on here, and to remind myself what I actually did if nothing else. With every year that passes I swear my sieve of a memory gets an extra hole in it... so here goes relying on my camera roll to fill in the blanks.
January
January was a relatively quiet month: I started the year off with my first "holiday" with Nathaniel: a 3 day break to Dublin to soak up some art and to see The 1975 which I blogged about here. Aside from that trip, there isn't alot I remember doing that month. A quick flip through the camera roll on my phone showed I went to Fruitmarket Gallery to see the exhibition on Sarah Hart and aside from that I guess it was a pretty chill month?
February
February was another quiet month from what I can surmise from instagram posts and my camera roll. I think Nathaniel played a couple of gigs, but all I really have to show from this month is one instax photo...
March
March was thankfully a little busier. I had a long overdue day out with one of my best friend's, Sarah, in Edinburgh. We spent the day visiting Talbot Rice Gallery and rummaging through some charity shops on South Bridge. A few days later I was off to London to visit another bestie, Jay, timed hilariously perfectly with her navigating her way through her ex moving his stuff out of her flat. We ended up staying a few days in the Hoxton Hotel in Shoreditch while he vacated, which ended up being a cute little mini-vacay for the two of us. The days where she had meetings and appointments to attend I went to explore the Phyllida Barlow exhibition at the Royal Academy, and met up with my fellow Scot, Josh, to go see Franz West at the Tate Modern. Tracey Emin at Whitecube Gallery was also on the list and I even got to briefly bump into another friend from art school, Amy-Leigh. All too soon it was back to Scotland, but I knew I'd be back in London a few months later for another visit.
April
April saw more gigs with Nathaniel's band, another visit to Fruitmarket Gallery for Senga Nengudi's show, and a reunion with one of my old tutors from art school, Graham Lister, for his exhibition opening at Patriothall.
May
May saw warmer weather come in and a beach trip with the dogs to Silver Sands in Aberdour. It was also the month of my cousin's wedding and the first discovery of Blackhorn burger joint in St Andrews - honestly it might be the best burger I've ever had!
June
Early June it was back to London for a flying visit to attend Jay's wedding in Hackney, then back to Scotland a day later. I visited the V&A in Dundee for the first time to see the Video Games exhibition with Nathaniel which was very cool and showed a lot of the preliminary sketches behind character designs in very big current and old games. Also in this month was Nathaniel's Mum - Celie's -exhibition opening as part of Cupar Arts Festival, in which there was a painting of the two of us included. Celie kindly gifted me the portrait later in the year as a birthday present as well.
July
In July I headed off for three weeks training in Sunderland for a promotion I got at work, and I have to say it was definitely an eye opening experience travelling and staying alone in a Premiere Inn for five days at a time and travelling back and forth to Scotland every weekend. I discovered that I still cannot eat in a restaurant by myself, I wouldn't even go to the restaurant in the hotel, so takeaway delivered to the hotel was how I got by. Due to the hours I was doing during my training I luckily had time in the afternoons some days to do some exploring, so I managed to fit in the National Glass Centre and a day trip to Newcastle to see the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art as well. During my time back home in between I also managed to see the Collage exhibition at Modern Two in Edinburgh which featured some favourite artists of mine including a Gunter Brus piece I had researched years before.
August
August included a trip to Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh to see Grayson Perry's tapestries, a new tattoo added to my collection, and another mate date with Sarah - this time in Glasgow to see Nicolas Party's show at The Modern Institute. I was also settling in to my new role as a manager at work and the end of the month was brought in on the rooftop balcony of a penthouse apartment, watching the fireworks for the end of the Edinburgh Fringe festival, and getting far too drunk on the free bar.
September
Back to London again to see Jay on a rare gap in her schedule as well as the Olafur Eliasson show at Tate Modern, another absolute gem of an artist I've long admired. Then it was back to Glasgow to see Pale Waves and Sports Team at the Barrowlands, a gig I'd been waiting to go to since we saw them in Dublin at the start of the year. And the month was rounded up by my step-sister's wedding, which was the first wedding I'd been to with a partner - having someone throw you round during the ceilidh dancing is always a plus!
October
A bit of a more chill month leading up to my 25th birthday which was celebrated with a cinema and arcade trip, and a visit to the St Andrews Aquarium and back to Blackhorn for more delicious burgers. A few days later I was off to Glasgow to see the one and only Cher with my best friend Karlie for our joint birthday treats to ourselves we'd paid for almost a year in advance. What an incredible night! The next day was Karlie's actual birthday and we spent it together in her studio with me sitting for a portrait, before rounding it off with fancy cakes at Broken Clock Cafe on Park Road. Perfection.
November
November saw the autumn leaves start to turn yellow and fall, one of my favourite times of the year. I can't recall too much happening at the start of the month but I went to see Half Alive at King Tut's towards the end of the month, and played photographer at a couple of Nathaniel's gigs in Dunfermline. Another trip to Glasgow for another tattoo and a flying visit to see Karlie at The Modern Institute on Aird's Lane.
December
Working in retail I cannot state enough how mad December gets in the run up to Christmas so obviously that's where my month disappeared to. Between work and organising the staff night out, December went by in a blur. The Christmas Night out with work was a great way to round off us all working together as we knew at that point that our store was going to be closing come the end of January, so it was really special to spend that last night out together. Christmas Day was spent at St Monan's with my brother, his fiancée Clare, and her Mum and sister. I got to drive there and back as a learner driver with my mum, so sadly no alcohol for me, but it was a really nice way to spend the day and it was something a bit different to our usual at home celebrations. New Year's Eve was brought in at home, just me and Nathaniel and the dogs for the evening watching the dogs while my Mum and stepdad went round to visit my gran. They were back before 9pm and we watched telly and struggled to stay up till the bells.
There you have it, a round up of my 2019. I'm sure there's probably things I've missed but it is hard to remember everything you've done in a year when you have to rely on the photos you took and the instagram posts you made. Here's hoping 2020 is just as busy after all the coronavirus drama is over.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, I'll leave a list of links below to my friend's instagrams in case you fancy a browse at their work!
Melissa x
Links:
Sarah - @kiddmurrayart
Karlie - @wukarlie
Josh - @joshuaartist
Jay - @jayrosetattoo
Nathaniel's band - @trading_glances_band