A bit about my story

 I am first and foremost an artist and Jewellery Designer, and I have a degree in fine art from highland and Islands University which became a university the year we had our graduation, in 2011.  Here is a small piece I have written about my art practice, which is from the past, but is also part of my current art practice. 

“Deborah MacVicar’s filmed performances and Cynotype self portraits explore the relationship between self and place in a way which engages not just with the physical environment, but the inner landscape.  In her Cyanotype self-portraits on cotton made in the landscape; the negative space is the fragment of what was once there but has been removed. Through filmed ‘performances’ there has been an ‘erasure of the self’. The very act of transformation seems to be of a healing and cleansing nature.  Her deep attachment to the island has informed her work through detailed enquiry and immersion in the landscape.”  

The picture is a cyanotype self portrait from my degree show of me in the foetal position, as if I am drowning.

A lot of my art work and my jewellery making is for my own therapy, to help me with stress or pain in my life, as I have had chronic pain for a long time.

When I'm sitting making a bracelet or a necklace or a pair of earrings, it makes me feel good and relieves stress.

I saw a joke on social media about the part of crafts when you buy art or craft materials, and the part where you actually make finished

 work are separate hobbies, and I do actually agree with this sentiment. 

I spend hours searching all over the world on the internet for beautiful Gemstones and gold and silver for my designs, and wait anxiously for them to arrive in neatly wrapped packages.   

Then I may keep these as my 'treasures' for years, until one day inspiration hits as I look through them all. I actually stopped making my jewellery for a few years, as I found my eyes were not able to cope with the fine detail, until last year, when I bought myself a large magnifying lamp, and it has made it possible to start again. So I'm full of enthusiasm again now and have made this new website.  

In my main job, I am a carer, and I love this work. I will talk about that a bit more another time. 

Again though, this kind of work can be stressful, so I come home, and make some gemstone jewellery in between my shifts.

As far as my art practice is concerned, I will be working on that as well over the next year so I will keep you posted.

I will leave you with this image taken of me  dressed for a preformance in the landscape of a stag in the sea, the photograph was taken by the Artist Anne Corance Monk