Mel Shand
2024-25
We are delighted to be working with artist Mel Shand as lead artist for The Far Orchard project 2024-25. Mel is a talented artist, photographer, author play-write, Whippet lover and gamekeeper’s wife based in Finzean.
Mel is developing ‘A Portrait of The Far Orchard’ that grows the connections between the apple tree hosts of The Far Orchard, their trees and the network that connects us all . Hosts are invited to have their portrait taken alongside their tree and have a conversation about their relationship to The Far Orchard project and the Barn. Over thirty works have been made so far, and new hosts with existing trees have also joined the project!
Mel has also been busy engaging participants beyond the host network. In October, during Plenty? festival she facilitated drop in watercolour painting session’s using apples.
Here’s an extract from her original invitation to The Far Orchard hosts….
“Hello,
I would like to introduce myself to you, I am Mel Shand, an artist, photographer and fellow Far Orchard host. I am delighted to have been invited to become the next Artist in Residence at The Barn following in the footsteps of Jo & Robbie and Caitlin on this lovely long-term project.
Taking the analogy of our apple trees, now that the roots are in the ground and the pollinators have been busy, I would like to invite you to further grow your connection with the project. My plan over these next 12 months is to nurture YOU – the far orchard family of hosts, so we can continue to build the network of our Far Orchard and how we can get to know each other better.”
The very definition of family is: a group of people related by a common purpose. I also looked up the definition of an ideal family: where each member feels valued, respected and understood, fostering a positive environment for growth, learning and emotional well being. I think this sums up the Far Orchard project perfectly! If we think of weeds as plants just growing in the wrong place, then strangers are the friends we have yet to meet.
In 2010, following a life threatening illness I came to understand how short and precious life actually is, and the real value of my community who reached out, offering both practical and emotional support during my recovery. By way of a thank you, I wanted to give something back to show my appreciation for the invisible bond that exists between neighbours and binds us together as a community. So I invited everyone within a 25 mile radius to be photographed outside their own front doors and the resulting portraits were published in a book of memories. The project, called ‘A Portrait of Our Time’ helped me to establish a visual time capsule of a place in a moment of time, and embed the feeling of what it means to belong to a community.
Our lives are relatively short in comparison to say, a house or a tree. But the house we live in becomes our home for however long we live there, and the trees that we plant are both physical markers and memory caches. Families are incredibly idiosyncratic, and all the more interesting and precious for that.
This Orchard would not exist without you, and so I am inviting you to make time to allow me to come and together we can create an informal portrait as a visual record of a moment in time. After all, what we all have in common in the first place was the urge to participate in something that grows, and to continue to grow requires nurturing.”
The Far Orchard 