Artist Talk: Jackie Donachie

Jackie has created artworks ELSIE, IRENE and JESSIE which are sited in three East Dunbartonshire locations; Lenzie, Lennoxtown and Westerton. The large-scale artworks made from powder coated aluminium and steel, commemorate the work of women in health and medicine who have associations with East Dunbartonshire – through education, working life or residence. As Jacqueline notes, ‘there are many stories locally, many tales, but there are few public dedications’. These works fill that void. Healthcare has long been a key industry for this area, from the large psychiatric hospital that occupied the Woodilee site for generations to the care homes and doctor’s surgeries that pepper Lenzie, Kirkintilloch, Westerton, Bearsden and Milngavie now. The mainstay of these workforces both then and now are women.