Martin S. Laird

Artist | film-maker | animator

Category: Cartoons & Illustration

  • Rebel Orkney Fair Saturday exhibition

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    Rebel Orkney, St. Andrews Fair Saturday exhibition at Northlight Gallery, Stromness. For the past few years Fiona Grahame (editor of The Orkney News), Cary Welling (curator of Northlight Gallery) and I have held events in association with St. Andrews Fair Saturday, which exists as an antidote to the rampant consumerism of Black Friday. For 2021…

    Written by

    Martin Laird
    Rebel Orkney, St. Andrews Fair Saturday 2021 exhibition at Northlight Gallery, Stromness, from 27th November to 9th December 10am-4pm daily except Sunday. Poster shows Alexander Graham, Janet Fea and Peter Maxwell Davies.

  • Happy Days – taking a cruise in the climate crisis

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    Happy Days – taking a cruise in the climate crisis. Dealing with the climate crisis facing the planet is not just the responsibility of governments. Individuals also bear responsibility for their own lifestyle choices and personal carbon footprints. The IPCC report into climate change is absolutely devastating: it is a serious threat to the stability…

    Written by

    Martin Laird
    "Say,, a cruise liner burns as much gas as a million cars!... Remember our first car?" "Happy Days". A happy old couple enjoying a cruise. A worried looking abandoned baby floats on a plank of wood in a polluted flooded hellscape.

  • The Fairy Dance – a forthcoming animation

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    The Fairy Dance – a forthcoming animation The Fairy Dance is a forthcoming animation inspired by the traditional Scottish fiddle tune of the same name. It tells a cautionary tale from Orcadian folklore regarding the dangers of dealing with the “peerie folk“, also known as Trows or fairies. (‘Peerie‘ is an older form of ‘peedie’,…

    Written by

    Martin Laird
    The Fairy Dance - an cartoon earth mound chambered cairn with a yellow sky

  • The New Adventures of St Magnus

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    The New Adventures of Saint Magnus in the 22nd Century Magnus Erlendsson was beatified as a Saint due to his pacifism in life, and death by martyrdom. During the Battle of Menai Straits, which was a Viking raid on Wales, Magnus had refused to fight, staying aboard ship to pray instead. He was eventually murdered…

    Written by

    Martin Laird
    The New Adventures of Saint Magnus in the 22nd Century. "I now appear in these degenerate days, when virtue's fled and vice triumphant sways." Words attributed to St. Magnus by an anonymous poet, 1773. In post-apocalyptic Orkney Saint Magnus roams the land slaying the cannibal humans.

  • Alexander Graham

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    Alexander Graham v. the Royal Burgh of Kirkwall Alexander Graham was a merchant who lived in Stromness, Orkney, in the 18th Century. At the time Stromness was growing from a tiny fishing village to a sizeable town due to its convenient location on the North Atlantic trade routes. This put it in competition with the…

    Written by

    Martin Laird
    Alexander Graham protesting unfair tax levied on Stromness, standing behind a wealthy Kirkwall burgher with a protest placard.

  • James VI & Earl Patrick Stewart

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    King James VI with the head of Earl Patrick Stewart Patrick Stewart was second Earl of Orkney and Zetland (Shetland) from the 1590s until his execution for treason in 1615. He was first imprisoned, and later beheaded, by King James VI of Scotland (who was also James I of England). As Earl of the Northern…

    Written by

    Martin Laird
    King James VI with the head of Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, who was beheaded for treason. Acrylic, 2020.