Page 20 - Art First: Helen MacAlister: At the Foot o’ Yon Excellin’ Brae
P. 20

blank, empty and pale; pale as an unploughed field, the
            white in her beautiful glass piece, or here as pale and
            empty as the girl’s sleepless nights. Though he is called
            bonie, there is no hint in the song that the girl’s love is
            fair-haired, but fair is after all frequently a poetic synonym
            of bonny, so you could well imagine that he might be. If
            so, that white, empty ground in the picture would be both
            the dream of his presence and the fact of his absence,
            all summarised in a few words on a blank field. But that is
            how her art works. It is, as she admits understated, but it
            resonates all the more for that.

            1  http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/reidinqu.pdf, p101
            2  Reid, 51
            3  Reflections on Reading Hamish Henderson’s Alias MacAlias,
            Scottish Affairs, no.6, winter 1994


























            20
   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25