Highland carer reconnects to love of art thanks to Dingwall-based charity
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A HIGHLAND woman who cares for her housebound daughter has had her love of art reignited after using a Dingwall-based charity’s Creativity in Care pack initiative.
Christine Muir (50) , who had not painted since high school, was given one of the packs by Highland-wide charity Connecting Carers and says it has transformed her life.
Ms Muir, who is a parent carer to daughter Shauni (27) who has lived with mental health issues for 12 years and hasn’t left the house for more than four years, has been doing lots of different paintings and drawings since receiving the pack. She has also painted a range of stones for her garden, but it is her work on upcycling projects that is giving her the most pleasure.
Ms Muir said: “My carer link worker Lisa (MacGillivray) told me about the packs and so I asked her to send me one. I got it at the end of June and with lockdown and just looking for things to do I started painting wee stones.
“I’d put a cat on, or a ladybird, at first just for the grandkids. Then I thought, ‘crikey, I’ve not done drawing since I left school at 16’, so I just put pencil to paper and started drawing giraffes and elephants and other animals.”
It was at that point that Ms Muir started to search around for things to paint, and she decided to try her hand at upcycling.
“I started off with a chair and did my own design on it, a tree and Buddha’s face and it just took off from there.”
Ms Muir decided to open a shop on US e-commerce site Etsy to try to sell some of her upcycled goods, but after a month closed it again.
She said: “I got a couple of stools from a second-hand shop and did a fair amount of work on them. I took them down as they hadn’t sold for a month, but I plan to start advertising my work again.”
The packs have also had a positive life-changing effect on Ms Muir in general, as she explains: “It’s had a good impact, it’s been great, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I forgot how much I liked it.
“I’ve always done arty bits anyway, my own decorating in the house and stuff, but getting back into even the sketching, it’s just great. I can get away into my own wee world for a few hours, just away from everything.
And of course, rekindling her artistic passion has helped Ms Muir with her caring role, which has been made so much harder by lockdown.
Ms Muir added: “It helps me with my caring role too. It’s a distraction. Even when I’m not doing the actual painting of furniture, I’m thinking what else I can do, or what colour will go with this. It’s taking my mind off things, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.
“I know lockdown’s been hard, but if it wasn’t for that I might not have got back into art. There’s only so much cleaning and decorating you can do.”
Related: Cope or collapse: there's no middle ground for burnt-out carers
