Bottlenosed Bubbles, by Rebekah Middleton
Artwork title and artist
Bottlenosed Bubbles, by Rebekah Middleton
Location of artwork
Begg Shoes, Queen Street, Peterhead
An introduction to the artist
“My name is Rebekah Middleton and I am an artist who lives in Mintlaw. I graduated from Gray's school of art in 2008 in Photographic and Electronic Media where I spent a lot of time looking at the impact of a space on people and how they interacted with a piece of art depending on the space and their ideas of reality. Since then I have largely changed my art practice and focus on drawing and painting - mostly portraits and landscapes - but with a continued fascination in how people perceive art and the representation of reality it portrays.”
The theme behind the public art project
Rediscover Peterhead set an overarching theme for the Public Art project. Which requests that all artwork must acknowledge Peterhead, whilst highlighting an environmental topic.
How the artists artwork acknowledges Peterhead
The dolphin within the artwork ties in with the strong history Peterhead has with the sea and its inhabitants.
How the artists artwork highlights an environmental topic
Through a gentle call to play, her work aims to remind its viewer of the option to have hope, over hopelessness when reflecting on the environmental crisis.
“We can have hope. We can believe in the power of imagination, creativity, and childlike curiosity to uncover innovative ideas, small or large, that can have a powerful impact for good. Both on our environment and our communities."
"As these spaces are public and also aim to inspire - to lean hard into the positivity of engagement, using a child interacting with bubbles as an analogy for coming at things without the hang-ups that ‘growing up’ can add."
"A gentle call to play. To imagine. To hope. To reach out and touch things and connect with our environment is something to be cherished and played with because, when we do, special things can happen."
Photo of Artist (Right) with Begg Shoes Manager (Left)
Artists thoughts on the public art project, and why they wanted to take part.
"I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this ambitious project and meeting some of the diverse community in the process. There are some clear parallels between Peterhead and the town I grew up closest to and I can’t help but wonder what it would have meant to a young me if I hadn’t had to leave to find great pieces of public art. Art is powerful in all its forms but the accessibility of public art means that it can be enjoyed by all and for that all kudos is due to the team at Rediscover Peterhead for taking a risk to try something different."
You can see more of this artists work via their own channels
Website www.rebekahmiddleton.com
Facebook @RebekahMiddletonArt
Instagram @rebekah_middleton