The Edinburgh Reporter January 2021

10
FEATURE
By Laura Vida
Have you seen the Crow in
Heels? If not, you’ll find her
partying by the cycle path near
Warriston Cemetery, along with
her noisy set.
Her creator, Helen Miles, began
making graffiti mosaics back in
2017, not long after arriving in
Edinburgh. For almost half of the
previous 30 years, she had been
honing her skills in Greece.
"I get up ludicrously early to
install my graffiti mosaics and
take Farook (my dog) with me. He
sits in the grass looking serious
while I get on with preparing the
surface, spreading the adhesive
and installing the mosaic. The first
few times I did it I was petrified.
Every siren was a speeding police
car sending a squad to arrest me.
"When I was installing ‘Why Me?’
on Calton Hill, I heard the sound of
heavy footsteps pounding towards
me and thought my time was
up. I turned, heart racing, as the
steps neared me and sensing the
discomfiture of the young man –
an off-duty police officer perhaps
The Edinburgh Reporter
Edinburgh mosaicist doesn't crow about her work
Stiletto style causes a flap on Warriston cycle path
– who stood before me."
Helen is careful about where she
installs her mosaics - she favours
areas where there is already
graffiti. An epiphany came when
she realised that the council was
actually sending people to clean
graffiti off one of her mosaics.
Here was recognition indeed!
It took a long time for Helen to
find a studio large enough for all
her materials and tools. In the
meantime, she had an urge to
create - she wanted to make her
presence felt. What’s more, she
had "a deep and almost desperate
need to introduce the world to
mosaics".
"Mosaics aren’t talked about in
the History of Art canon because
they were made collectively, there
was no one named creator. People
just don’t get them. Perhaps
because they don’t come across
mosaics very often. They think
you can just knock one up with a
broken plate."
Helen spent a year with a master
craftsman in Thessaloniki, Greece,
before continuing her training
in Athens. She said: "I became
obsessed with Roman mosaics,
which have extraordinary designs.
I used to think one didn’t really
need to do more than that but now
I’m much more adventurous."
Known for her more traditional,
Conan Doyle Centre celebrates
by Professor Lance Butler
The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Centre is ten years old.
The building in which it is
housed, a majestic stone giant
in the West End, is a lot older
than that, but the decision to
convert it into a place for spiritual
exploration was taken on the
snowy evening of December 17th
2010 by Ann Treherne.
Since then it has increased its
offerings and reach. Ann has now
bowed out as Chair of Trustees
and has handed over to me.
The Trust’s remit is to explore
and present to the public a range
of "Mind-Body-Spirit" ideas and
practices and the Centre offers
meditation, mediumship, yoga,
astrology, crystal healing and the
like.
As a retired academic, I am
particularly focussed on the
intellectual possibilities of this
field, and want to bring these
to wider attention, to show
the scientific and materialist
Professor Lance Butler, The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre
mainstream that they have
nothing to fear.
The only problem for ordinary
science is that it is in danger of
missing out on a better view of the
cosmos by ignoring the existence
of energies and dimensions
beyond what is taught as normal
in the 21st century. To this end
the number of lectures given by
leading thinkers in this broader
field has been quadrupled and our
"Tuesday Talk" series on Zoom is
flourishing.
We hope to return to in-theflesh
events and talks and once
again to welcome the people
of Edinburgh into our lovely
and peaceful building. The
world seems to be shifting in
a more spiritual direction. The
self-reflection occasioned by the
Covid crisis, the new realisation
that we are doomed if we do
not learn to respect our planet,
the developments in science
which finally, a century late, is
forced to admit the reality of the
"impossible" facts revealed by
Quantum Physics, all indicate that
the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre
may be a small example of how
humanity can go forward to a less
destructive and selfish future.
The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Centre
25 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh,
EH12 5AP
www.arthurconandoylecentre.
com
Tel: 0131 625 0700
Edinburgh's hidden mosaicist Helen Miles
classical technique, Helen
explained: ‘If you look at the crow,
the way the tiles are laid is very
classical. There are rules about
how the tesserae (materials)are
arranged: the spaces are just
Brexit goose is cooked
by Juliet Lawrence Wilson
We find ourselves not only in the
middle of another lockdown but
Brexit too. Are the supermarket
shelves empty I wonder?
If you’re anti Brexit you might
also find yourself the socially
aware type who also disapproves
of unseasonal eating, so I’m here
to offer you some silver linings.
In all honesty who needs to be
eating strawberries in January?
Imagine a world, we may now be
living in, where asparagus is on
the menu for only three weeks of
the year. To me this would be a joy.
Seasonal eating would not only
reduce unnecessary food miles
but give us something to look
forward to and appreciate.
It might also be worth noting
that seasonal eating is probably
a healthy way to go. Have all year
round salad leaves made us any
thinner? In the days when the local
weather dictated what was on the
table, people ate lighter food in the
spring and summer, and heavier
vegetables over the autumn and
winter months. Subsequently far
fewer people were fat.
Whether were still chomping
on watercress in February or not,
learning more about seasonal
food might be a good New Year
resolution.
Leith’s Seasonal Cookery Bible is
a worthy tome with just about all
you need to know. I’m also fond of
Allegra McEvedy’s Colouring The
as important as the tesserae
themselves. You don’t want to
create rivers or lines in the gaps.
If you do, the eye will fall on them.
It’s easy for a mosaic to get fussy
and distracting."
Seasons, as her recipes are fun
and quirky.
As we all know, good animal
husbandry is both the carnivores
comfort and excuse - so I’m typing
with one hand and self flagellating
with the other. In the past I’ve not
only eaten foie gras but cooked
it for many others and even
published a recipe with it. Oh dear.
I had been assured that the poor
force fed geese didn’t mind it one
little bit, however upon visiting a
foie gras farm some years ago I
discovered they very much did.
It’s illegal to manufacture foie
gras in the UK but up until now it
has been an EU imposed law to
allow the import of it. With it being
a new dawn, so to speak, it might
be the time to get the placards and
poster paints out for this one.
Flagging up Brexit issues