Woodcut Reverie

The imagery I drew on for the woodcut depicted the recently built sculpture, a slate floor that I designed and laid for our host, and a bird's eye view of the surrounding islands. Bordering the three scenes was a pattern adapted from a rug in the cottage where we stayed. The print extended my relationship to the land art beyond the time I spent making it. And it was a purely personal artwork produced in a manner that harkened back to my earliest artistic strivings. Sometimes the best direction forward is discovered by going back.

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The Stone Hive

Maybe it comes from experience, or maybe it is innate, but I do have a nose for stone. Time and again I stumble upon obscure sources of loose stone if I just start wandering around. The talent, if it can be called that, extends to moments during the walling day when a particularly sized and shaped stone is required for a spot on the wall. Without it being in sight, I will ferret into a stock pile to immediately come up with the hidden gem, waiting just below the surface.

Art Above the Arctic

A week on Sørvær in Northern Norway kept me immersed in the land and enveloped by the sea. The atmosphere of this island among islands is reigned by the sky above and waters below. Combined, they create an undeniably powerful influence. My moods changed at the whim of the weather. Even though I’ve spent my adult life working outdoors I’m unconditioned to the reality of light reflected from a vast and shifting water surface, or, tides streaming in and out all around. Grasping the totality of the archipelago's grand and sweeping vistas was a heady experience.