Happy New Year 2012
08 January 2012
Happy New Year / Godt nytt år
May 2012 bring lots of adventures large and small!
4 SEA POSTCARDS have been found
23 August 2011
I have arrived in Shetland to finish of the LK243 UnderSail residency, and have just collected 5 SEA POSTCARDS from Shetland Arts office. Exciting! 43 SEA POSTCARDS were placed in the sea between Waterford, Ireland and Halmstad, Sweden and numbers 5, 8, 13, 15, 16 have been found between Fleetwood, Lancashire and Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
If you do find a SEA POSTCARD feel free to write your contact details on the back so I can get in touch with you.
Keep looking there are 38 still to be found!
The documentation resulting in this dispersal and collection of SEA POSTCARDS will form part of the LK243 UnderSail exhibition that is planned to travel back to some of the destinations that the Tall Ships Race 2011 visited next year: more info later.
Look in the Residency Section on right for more info and images.
The End of the Race
11 August 2011
The Talls Ships Race 2011 finished in the harbour of Halmstad, West Sweden after 5 and a half days at sea. Leaving Stavanger we were becalmed and went round and round in circles of a few days. It is very confusing to leave your watch sailing south (the direction that we wanted to go in) sleep and then wake for the next watch only to be pointing north! On our trip from Lerwick to Stavanger we sailed in one straight line at course 110°! This was a new experience for me that you can't just go in the direction you want under sail! With no wind and northerly currents we were pushed backwards! Like normal the Swan was at the back of the pack, but we didnt mind, we have a very comfy solid boat!
This part of the residency has come to an end, it has been a really big adventure, have shared the Swan with 46 other sailors, small things have happened along the way, funny incidents, broken eggs, lost buiscuit box lids, captains dinners, crew parades, painted faces, garden gnomes, dodging cargo ships in the dark, hunting for waffles etc. Incidences that are hard to retell or capture. But I am going to try!
After 4 days off the boat the world has just stopped rocking!
Now with a quick turnaround in Bergen I set off for North Uist and Shetland for the next month, to get the essence of the adventure down on paper. Time to reflect and start making! Time to concentrate.
Life on the Swan
22 July 2011
I have been at sea since the 1st July with lots of stop overs at ports and harbours along the way, on board the Swan, a Shetland herring drifter from 1900, as artist in residence during the Tall Ships Race.
It has been an non stop adventure of sailing in calm seas and rough ones, and of festivals at each port. Living on a small boat with 15 others of which 8 are teenagers, being on watch at unearthly times of night, sleeping and cooking and just getting into the rhythm of the sailing experience takes time and leaves little time to get anything else done. The call of "All Hands on Deck", "Breakfast", "Dolphins", "Watch Change" interrupts any concentration of getting something down on paper, but photos have been taken and other things are happening along the way.
I have thrown 26 wooden postcards in the sea during our trip from Waterford and today I got an email that someone has found one on the beach in Ardrossan, Ayrshire. Each postcard is stamped with the coordinates and date of the position of the place it is thrown in the sea. If you find any of these postcards please can you return them to the address on the back of the card. The will then become part of the planned exhibition to take place sometime after the sailing leg of this journey.
At each port dressed in a polka dot blue dress, I collect drawings of boats and stories of being at sea, so far I have over three hundred, but am being hampered by wind and rain here in Lerwick were we are currently in harbour.
Next leg is to race to Stavanger, Norway with the rest of the boats leaving on Sunday 24th July in the Parade of Sail - a spectacular display of sailing ships from all over the world large and small!
Lets hope the wind blows us in the right direction!
LK 243 UnderSail Residency
05 June 2011
This summer will be spent on board The Swan, a herring drifter from 1900, taking part in the Tall Ships race 2011. After the voyage I will be based in Taigh Chearsabhagh Arts Centre, North Uist and then at Shetland Arts to complete work documented. For more info look at LK243 UnderSail in the RESIDENCIES section to the left!
Aquatint to Zerkall – Alphabet prints
02 June 2011
Some of my prints will be shown in the exhibition Aquatint to Zerkall - Alphabet prints from contemporary Artists at Northern Print Studio, Newcastle from 9th june to 10th sept 2011
Opening 8th June 6-8pm