The earliest beginnings of spring: the snowdrops are growing straggly and I am watching for the tulips to start pushing their bunched fingers through the warming soil. The days hover between fine, feeding, spring rain and sun. It is planning time in the studio and I am arranging the first research trips for the next part of the North Atlantic project.
This year I am working in Basque Spain and Labrador drawing the remains of the whaling ports left by the Basque in Labrador. They date mostly from the period of 1550-1610 when the Basque industry was at its zenith in this region. I am going first to Northern Spain to see where this began and to visit the forests where the wood for the ships came from.
This project encompasses an understanding of the history of both places to more fully comprehend the present day. It asks more questions than I can fully answer for now: what makes the people of the edges so passionate about our shared Atlantic Ocean, what is the sociological make-up of places like northern-most Spain (both then and now) and as a result what makes these places as they are and how do we all connect? I am in wonder that the small wooden boats used even managed to survive the journey.
Most of all this is a chance for me to see these rocks for myself. To see huge coastal landscapes under the influences of chaining weather and erosion and to study the rock structures. To make this possible I am behind the computer writing before venturing out to explore huge skies and rain dreaming.
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