DUNDEE UNIVERSITY REVIEW OF THE ARTS

Morag Muir is a remarkably prolific artist who has demonstrated over the past 30 years her dedication to art. My awareness of Morag’s work began a few decades ago when I saw her pieces on the walls of the local Turkish art collector and restaurant owner Zeki Agacan.  I was intrigued by the bold maturity of her early compositions and the allure of her more recent work, as well as her dedication to painting.   I went to meet her in the cosy and colourful confines of her kitchen. I was very much looking forward to our meeting, curious to find out more about her attitude towards her craft and its evolution, and wondering where she situates herself in relation to contemporary Scottish painting. 

This graphic memoir and biography is the first collaborative project from Bryan and Mary Talbot. Bryan Talbot is an established comics creator whose previous works include Alice in Sunderland and the Grandville series. Mary Talbot is an academic writer whose research into language, gender and power spans twenty-five years. The eponymous ‘dotter of her father’s eyes’ is Lucia Joyce, James Joyce’s daughter, whose coming of age is interwoven here with a memoir of Mary Talbot’s early life. Mary’s father, James Atherton, was a renowned Joyce scholar, so it is apt that the lives of the two girls should be explored side-by-side. Each narrative explores the often fraught relationship that the girls experienced with their respective fathers.