A Birthday Bash for James Hogg

[Sadly, I was not lucky enough to be there. This photo is a screenshot from the recording of the event.]

It is poignant to look back on my old Twitter feed to February 2020 and see the optimistic planning of events for the rest of the year. Well, we all know what happened. The best laid schemes o mice an men...

Fast forward to the end of the year. 1st December. In true 2020 style, we threw a party over Zoom.

[Before and after. From Library rooms to Zoom rooms. Or Teams in this case.]

The event was organised by Dr Valentina Bold and Dr Adrian Hunter of the University of Stirling, and featured many notable guests including author and poet James Robertson ('The Testament of Gideon Mack') and writer Bruce Gilkison ('Walking With James Hogg') who is also one of Hogg's direct descendants.

I must admit, I was particularly fascinated by the physical similarities that I could see between Bruce Gilkison and his ancestor. As I am drawing Hogg as a character for my graphic novel, I have reason to really study the shape of his face and his features. During the call Gilkison's camera often blurred as it tried to find focus. At times it was a little spooky - this obscuring of the modern details of his clothing and background often made it seem like Hogg's spirit had made it to the party.

Of course, it wouldn't be 2020 without some technical glitches while trying to video conference. James Hogg would never have predicted that one of the most frequent exclamations at his party would be 'you're on mute!'

In a gap in the proceedings as we waited on one of the performers' technology to fix itself, I was asked to speak about my graphic novel project. A little nervous at having to improvise and give my elevator pitch in front of nearly a hundred people, even if it was online, I enjoyed the opportunity to tell the group about my plans.

I was also able to share my art on Twitter with a much wider audience than I am used to, as BBC South Scotland used two of my drawings of Hogg alongside their coverage of the event. The article can be found here.

There were beautiful performances of James Hogg's songs from Sheena Wellington and Dr Kirsteen MacCue. I enjoyed singing along to 'When the Kye Come Hame' when we were encouraged to join in at the last verse. Singing altogether over Zoom, while it never produces anything too coherent, (I know from many shambolic renditions of 'Happy Birthday' during the lockdowns) it is an experience that brings people together. This felt needed in a time where we couldn't meet in person.

At the end of a great evening, we raised a toast to James Hogg with a glass of his favourite whisky punch. The recipe was emailed to us before the event and I duly made one for myself. I have to say, the man had good taste! I will share the recipe in another post.

Although in very different circumstances to what we expected, at the end of a very different year to what we all expected, the 250th birthday party of James Hogg was a success. I just hope he would have been as bowled-over by the attention as he seems to be in this painting 'The Celebration of the Birthday of James Hogg' by Sir William Allan. 

Personally, I think we threw a better bash!

[Image from National Galleries Scotland. The link also gives you a wee bit more context about the painting. See if you can spot Sir Walter Scott!]