Comic artwork by Hailey Austin (story) & Emma Oosterhous (artwork) for the River Deep Mountain High exhibition draws on ‘Give Me The Hills’, written by Syd Scroggie with illustrations by Colin Gibson. Hailey & Emma also reference Colorado mountains from home.
Give Me My Mountains! – Story by Hailey Austin, Art by Emma Oosterhous
Comic artwork
“These pages were inspired by the poetry of Syd Scroggie collected in Give Me The Hills as well as the drawings accompanying them by Colin Gibson. As Syd was describing Scottish mountains in his poems, I couldn’t help but think of the Rocky Mountains where I am from in Colorado. The first piece uses some of Syd’s own verse as he describes various Scottish mountains and wildlife, while the second adapts some of his poetry to describe Coloradan mountains and wildlife that I and Emma, the artist, call home.”
Hailey Austin is a comics PhD student at the University of Dundee who is originally from Colorado. She has published both scholarly and creative work. She worked as the comics intern in the archives and they can’t keep her out of them!
Emma Oosterhous is a queer cartoonist and illustrator from Colorado. She got her BA in Spanish from CU Boulder before moving to Scotland to pursue an MDes in Comics & Graphic Novels. You can find her on Twitter at @EOosterhous.
River Deep Mountain High was an exhibition in the University’s Lamb Gallery to mark the Year of Coast and Water curated by Archive Services. Artists, designers and creative writers were invited to respond to the University’s rich archive, museum and rare book collections on the themes of rivers, seas, coasts and mountains. Original photographs, journals, plans, models and specimens relating to whaling, the River Tay, the natural world and mountaineering inspired jewellery, artwork, sculpture, poetry and much more.