Monday, July 23, 2012

Work + Beyond



Sunday 22nd July and the storm we expected never arrived although we certainly inherited the atmospherics. The clouds this evening are rolling over the islands to sit on the water where the land meets the ocean. I’ve taken over a thousand photographs with the new Powershot SX 260. This is a great little camera with super macro, great HD video and on manual you can get good landscape—if you can see what you’re shooting in bright light.
Yesterday we did a boat trip from Hofsos—our nearest fishing village—around the islands that have been mesmerizing us for two weeks. The water was turquoise blue and clear as crystal with a few puffins bobbing about and colonies of very vocal guillemots nestled into the cliffs. Legends and folk tales are embedded into these rocky structures that rise so dramatically out of the Arctic Ocean. Forty percent of Icelanders believe in fairies and it is easy to see why—the volcanic rock structures carry all sorts of evocative imagery. 
Monday 23rd and the storm arrived in the night. It is blustery and damp but I will be venturing out to collect iron coated stones. I will rub the iron oxide over my paper wrapped stones to accentuate the edges and texture. I’m getting a bit better at the technique!
I have been working on a rocky formation on the beach and yesterday I peeled the mulberry paper like a fragile skin from the rock face. It is the antithesis of the rock and I’m fascinated by this skin quality as it unfolds from the dense material of the stone. I’m planning to hang the skins, spacing them from the wall with sewing pins to configure a form quite different from the ancient original—although relatively not so ancient—Iceland is one of the youngest land masses in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iceland
In the studio I’m covering more small stones and rubbing iron oxide and graphite against the stone to accentuate the form and surface detail. When I unwrapped the paper skin from the first small stone it had tiny holes at the high points of the surface texture. It let the light through, adding yet another magical property.

Cloud on Drangey

cloud on sea

wrapped rock 3 on beach 

Face of Malmey known as the Cathedral

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