Final Days at Baer

The family home at Baer with studio apartments on the left

Iceland for me was a peak experience.  On returning to California something essential had changed in me at what felt to be a cellular level and I felt deeply that I had to find a completely new way of being on the planet. What that looked like I didn't know and although it threw me into limbo, I couldn't go back to the old way of being. I couldn't work and needed time to reflect. Now, much has shifted and finally after almost seven months of adjustment I am very happy to be concluding my Iceland blog. I have two posts to make—This, the final days of the residency and to come very soon, the journey around the island with my fellow artist Linda Simmel.

In the final days at Baer the five of us—artists in residence—were focused on presenting our creative experiments to over a hundred interested, intelligent visitors from all walks of life—farmers, architects, writers, teachers, an Icelandic Oceanographer and his wife on their way to Monterey, California, the young and the elderly. We had worked hard and the open day was the perfect conclusion.  We wanted to express our gratitude by putting on a really good show.

Immense gratitude to Steinunn Jónsdóttir for her vision and generosity in creating this idyllic residency. www.baer.is  And many thanks also to a great support team; Finnur, Steinunn’s husband (and their two young boys), Eiðer, Bjarnveig, Sunna, Símon and Símon Jr. 

Open day July 2012

Donald had partly finished a book made from a piece of drift wood sliced perfectly through its center to form the back and front cover. Inside he had inlayed a small video screen (iPhone) which played a mesmerizing, speeded up time lapse video. It was highly atmospheric and focused on Drangey, the monolithic island we viewed from the studio building every day.  Donald is an internationally acclaimed sculptor/furniture maker and whatever he does is very sensitive and beautifully made. Also from driftwood he crafted a musical instrument with banjo tuning—a baer-jo—which produced a great strumming sound and in his studio he hung big composite images of the landscape. See his blog/website for more about his work: http://donaldfortescue.com/2012/07/19/baer-new-work-1/

Donald tuning his baer-jo in the lounge area of the studios

Mark had taken large format photographs using a Hasselblad. He worked at night when the light was at its best, images unseen until the film would be developed later in New York. He showed a series of digital images in his studio with explanations of his project and the intention to make a book. He recently, five months after taking, emailed a series of stunning images of landscape and portrait: http://www.markhartmanphoto.com

Tove had been making life-size, biographical pieces incorporating an outline of herself in many layers, one of which she ‘dressed’ in fish skins. The largest town near to us, Sauderkroker, has the only fish skin tannery in the country and these salmon skins are quite beautiful. Tove’s pieces were stitched, painted and glued, hung in layers and lit to give the impression of viewing through various dimensions of experience. sundthansen.no/

Tove's fish skin figures

Linda’s long crumpled pastel drawing, rolled out to be more than 16 ft in length, was spectacular, and, as one of our visitors remarked, resembled a moving glacier and equally as transient as it didn’t survive the journey home to California. There are rumors that she began again this extended process from her Studio in the Bay Area.  lindasimmel.com

Linda's very long drawing, chalk pastel on. BFK paper

Detail

Detail
Moving glacier  Breiðamerkurjökull , Glacier Lagoon

I followed my original intention of working ‘hands on’ with the land and not using any technology! However, in the first few days I had been inspired to make video and only reluctantly returned to the original intention—because I thought I should at least try it. I had been fascinated by the varied rock formations on the beach at Baer and had spent a day photographing them. Returning the next day to ‘find’ those rocks formations proved to be impossible, even with the photographs. They had completely disappeared. I must have focused on detail so intently, that somehow each gem had scaled up in size in my vision and I could not retrieve the reality. I had to let it go and, with some resistance, selected areas of rock suitable for taking impressions using fragile fibrous Kozo paper,—shipped out to Baer for this purpose. I was soon completely hooked. 

Rose formation on Baejarklettar - Baer beach

I began by soaking the paper in the pristine Arctic water, and, totally saturated, modeled it into the intricate surface of the rock. Left to dry in the sun, the following day this fragile, fibrous paper had adhered strongly to the rock surface. Utilizing orange pebbles from the beach, naturally covered in a layer of soft iron oxide, I rubbed them over the surface of the paper to colour and accentuate the detail of the rock. In the same way, I worked with graphite to bring out more fine detail. The result was a very rock-like installation, almost identical to the rock as I became more proficient.  After photographing the completed rubbings in situ I was able to peel the paper—a skin of memory—from the rock. The paper had retained the memory of the detail and form so well that the resistance of separation seemed to create an electrical charge. It was quite shocking—no pun intended—to remove this skin.  

Paper installation adhered to rock and drying

Peeling the 'memory' from the rock

The largest installation well adhered and almost invisible

The flayed skins hanging in the studio on open day

 For work in the studio I went on to select choice stones from the same beach and wrap them completely in the paper following the same technique to fit them to the stone.   Undercuts, I tucked, folded and cut the paper to follow the form, creating a pattern I could open and, again, remove a skin. Some of the forms I left wrapped with the stone still inside. It is interesting to note that following the removal of the paper, the stones themselves had been visibly changed. 

Group of covered stones - paper skins encasing stones

Stone skin with stone removed

Paper covered stone - iron oxide applied from beach pebble

In process, iron oxide applied and graphite exposing detail

Detail of above

Some pieces I left with Steinunn and shipped and carried others. 

Our photographer, Mark gave me empty boxes that had contained his 4” x 5” film . They made perfect containers for small skins of memory, specially created to be held inside. I like this format and to open one of these boxes to find a fragment of fragile paper-thin rock memory is rather magical.

Studio shot of small rock memories in 4"x5" film boxes with iron coated pebbles in foreground

Seven months later and I am just beginning to formulate a way to continue with the work that developed at Baer.  I feel as if I have carried away with me from Iceland a physical memory, not my own, but of the land itself,  a record of millions of years that inevitably reveals itself at its leading edge. It is alive and ever changing. Holding the Rock Skins I feel I have a living fossil in my hands.

 The keeping of records feels more vital that ever as our planet’s surface shifts, the glaciers melt and the oceans rise to take over the land. My wish is to return to Baer to complete a small part of a big picture, to record the sounds and to penetrate deeper into this rumbling volcanic Land

Thank you to everyone who supported me on this journey and to all my wonderful friends who bought  an archival print of Signature Moth to enable me to travel to Iceland. Thanks also to my friend Maya Clemes for the substantial gift of Kozo paper that inspired the idea of land rubbings - Impressions of Iceland. Thanks  to Robin Kandel for passing on the link for the residency, suggesting using graphite as a medium rather than wax crayon and the play day at my studio. 

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

Beginning of the second week

Beginning to get somewhere with experiments—covering rocks with paper and using iron patinated stones along with graphite to rub in the details of the stone. I’m also taking active, bubbling red algae from the rock pool where I’ve chosen to work and spreading the algae over wet paper. As it dries it does very interesting things and I’m documenting everything. Unfortunately, when I brought the piece into the studio it stank to high heaven and now it's ouside in the rain getting even smellier!! We have three days of showers ahead so I will work in the studio wrapping complete stones.

On Sunday, Steinunn took the five of us on a road trip to Akureyri, the second largest town in Iceland, north west of Baer. The lighting was spectacular all day and we had many stops and photo ops. The buildings are clad in corrugated steel, painted very bright colours. With a backdrop of ever changing colour and spectacular atmospherics the coloured buildings work amazingly well. We went to a very interesting historical herring museum in Siglufyiordur, an old fishing town that has been isolated until recently when tunnels were built through the mountains. The tunnels themselves intrigued me. They curve through the mountain and somehow have an ethereal quality. Hewn out of the rock, narrow, with high arches and beautiful proportions you really feel you are traveling in a parallel world. One of the tunnels is single track where one direction has priority and oncoming traffic has to pull into alcoves. With no traffic lights to control the flow visitors have to work it out but I think ones intuition has the space to develop here. There is nothing to break the continuity.  

Akureyri, a very colourful friendly town has a good bookshop, art supplies, an art museum and a 100 year old botanic garden where the plants are even more vibrant that they are in Edinburgh. 

We got home about 10PM and of course as it doesn’t get dark I went down to my cove to check things out and actually did some work! It is very difficult to go to bed and even more difficult to get up in the morning. The Icelanders are active round the clock in the two months of summer and sleep more in the winter. The body must adapt to this rhythm whereas we guests are just lacking sleep!

End of Tuesday 17th.

We’re all busy and creative now. It’s interesting working in such a social situation. We share ideas but we’re all doing our individual thing and come together for lunch—the biggest meal—and tasty dinner of transformed leftovers! The food is amazing and I’m getting inspired to expand my jaded Boulder Creek repertoire by getting an Icelandic cook book—I’ve never eaten so much fish in my life! Our young photographer, Mark Hartman is a vegetarian but is certainly enjoying the fish! Baer is planning a cook book........

I’m spending a lot of time working outside in a small sheltered rocky cove near Baer where I’m wrapping the rocks with mulberry paper. I can spend 3 solid hours there and then I go back in the evening to check things. So far the work I’ve done is small scale. I would need extra hands to maneuver big pieces of paper and I think that would be a project in itself. Eventually, taken from the rocks to the studio they become 'impressions of Iceland' and look like 3D maps spaced off the wall with long pins.

This open landscape and the constantly changing light and colour is a gift for photography. The sun on its low circular trajectory draws a ring around the land and the shadows are very long all day. I’m incorporating this into the work as it evolves.

I seem to have forgotten about video after the first few days here and am concentrating on photography, and hands on work. I’ve been feeling the need to return to this sort of work for quite a while an am really enjoying it. 

It is completely experimental so there is always that edge of not being quite sure of what one is doing. We have to present our meanderings at an open day in two weeks time. It will be good finally to have to pull things together. 

Wrapped stone 2

All night ever changing sunset at Baer

Atmospheric Baer

Siglufjordur fishing village - Tove with wooden figures

Three days have gone by

Three days have gone by and we are gradually settling in. Following a serious case of overwhelm, the group is bonding well after a show and tell yesterday in which we were all blown away by each others creative endeavors. 

Donald began as a furniture maker and brings this aesthetic to his sculpture. I really like his work which has similarities to Richard Deacon and Martin Puryear.

Mark is an artist photographer based in New York. He showed us a series of very interesting found—in Panama—billboard montages where local people had stripped sections revealing layers of material. He searches out and photographs marginalized cultures.

Tove is a sensitive artist from Norway. Having recently spent some time in Cambodia. She is finding a way to integrate her experience of the Cambodian and Icelandic cultures in an experimental work where she combines the native materials of each country.

Linda does wonderful drawings of water and is definitely in the right place! She has been carefully observing all around her, taking photographs and has found her spot in the landscape which will inspire new work.


Our wonderful host Steinunn bought Baer with the vision to create an art centre that would provide a retreat for artists and architects to rekindle and renew creative experience in an exquisitely beautiful, tranquil environment. She is an architect and with a colleague designed the buildings specifically for this purpose. Nothing has been overlooked.

We’re all taking our time to explore to see what direction we will take individually. Yesterday I spent about 4 hours photographing the geometric rock formations—that look to me like stone flowers—and shooting a video footage of the sun on the water. The light is warm and as the sun circles the sky over the day in a very subtle sweep, the light appears to stay on a similar trajectory and it seems that only the direction of the shadow changes. I came out with my camera in the late evening just before the sun swept the horizon and got some dramatic images.

This morning some of us took advantage of the new warm swimming pool on the edge of the fiord in Hofsos, the nearest town, only five minutes drive away. It felt so good to swim and I think this will be a regular activity to be followed up when I get back to CA.

Pordarhofdi (‘P’ is pronounced a bit like ‘th’ and the ‘d’ is not in the Icelandic alphabet) is a bluff—no pun intended—at the end of a pebble causeway connecting the land owned by Baer. I spent the afternoon making my way over about 2 miles of large pebbles that lead to the bluff.

The Arctic terns are aggressively protecting their young and in Hitchcock style were dive bombing me and screeching aggressively. They have a very sharp beak and were a bit to close for comfort. I decided to film this scene as I walked. The sun was casting a long shadow and I filmed my shadow with the shadow of the birds making dives and sounding as if they meant business. I think I have some very interesting footage. I was intending to make rubbings to make impressions of the land but so far have used video and photography.

Baer Art Center. The studios and lounge on the left.

Pordarhofdi / bluff 

                                                           The lounge in late afternoon.

                                                                      Studio

Black-tailed godwit

Today is the 12th and the weather perfect for another walk to the bluff, Pordarhofdi , to take some rubbings/impressions of the land.
Walking the gauntlet of the arctic terns and over the big pebbles is quite a challenge but I practiced Taji walking which put no strain on my feet or legs. I'm enjoying a new freedom!

Iceland beyond my wildest dreams!!

The five of us have just arrived at the residency. It is beyond any ones wildest dream

We five artists on the residency met for the first time on the regular bus that took us north to the Hofsos, the nearest town and a five hour drive—spectacular landscape—words cannot describe adequately. And it got better and better. The Art Center is on a fiord in an exquisite purpose built, specifically designed building with big glass windows looking out to the Arctic Ocean, with pastures, islands, dramatic skies and Icelandic horses. It is serene and expansive. The animals like everything else here are surprisingly beautiful and calm. Baer is a horse farm and the horses are half wild. They go to the valley in summer to run wild and are herded back to the farm in winter. It is amazing to see them running with the wind in their manes. As a complete beginner I get the opportunity to learn to ride one of these wonderful beasts.

The studios are 400 sq ft with a small bedroom and bathroom at one side and the buildings are painted white throughout and illuminated by a skylight in the roof. Steinunn who owns the farm is an architect and designed the buildings with a colleague. Amazingly, she is funding this herself. 

It is difficult to stop working with 24 hours of daylight. The light changes dramatically and rapidly. I have tried to photograph the fiord and I just can't do it justice. It is almost 12:00PM and the sun is low in the sky but shining brightly and it feels like early evening. I must say it is very cold and fairly windy out there and I will need all my layers when I go off  to pursue my project tomorrow. 

I was in Reykjavik for 3 days before coming here and the center of the city is very charming and colorful. A new friend and fellow artist at the residency Linda Simmel and I had met up on the 6th in Reykjavik and we spent a restorative afternoon yesterday at the blue lagoon on the outskirts of the city. It is a natural thermal pool/spar within the lava beds, surrounded by volcanoes. The pool has a steaming geyser at its center generating hot, blue/white water. White silica mud, responsible for the whiteness in the water, we daubed all over anything in need of rejuvenation. The bottom of the pool is white/black glass, black lava scree and smooth lava rock. It was very cleansing and relaxing and a much needed after the long flight—I feel 10 years younger!

There is much more to say abut reykjavik and my companions but it is definitely time for me to sleep!!

Please email if you have any comments or want to know more about particular things. dianahobson@sbcglobal.net 

unfortunately you have to have a google account to leave comments on the blog. I'm sorry about that.

Definitely time to get some sleep!

                                                              Detail - Blue Lagoon

                                     
                                        Reykjavik city center

                                     
                                        View from the studio building at Baer

In preparation—connecting with nature

Boulder Creek, CA, June 22 2012, 10 days to go before I leave for my adventure in Iceland and this is my first post as I prepare for the journey.

I am with my beautiful, mystical 85 year old friend, Barbara Thomas at the redwood amphitheatre on her land in Ben Lomond, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California. A Native American group held a ritual here to welcome in the Summer a few days ago and the energy in the circle is charged.

 I stand in the centre of the large open space circled by madrones and redwoods, wooden armchairs stationed around me, the seemingly empty redwood chairs looking like thrones. I imagine I can feel the energy of archetypal figures sitting silently in each position around the circle as if in Council and my mind goes to the Tarot’s Major Arcana. There are 8 armchairs and two benches so we have 10 places as on the Qabalah’s Tree of life—an intelligent blueprint of human psychology. 

I was drawn to one particular chair and faced the Hierophant. I addressed him with my intention to connect and collaborate with the earth in whatever form it presents itself. I want to be a completely open channel to whatever is revealed, from the mundane to the esoteric. I intend to be authentic and not try to disguise unfamiliar experience in acceptable language as I have done in the past. I am putting myself out there to see through the eyes of a child—of course!!! this is the archetype of the Fool, a great place to begin. 

I find a place to lie down just outside the circle on a slope where the warm sun filters through the trees. Either side of me are madrone saplings with a very tall madrone in the middle, arching over me high into the blue sky, its branches reaching the centre of the amphitheatre.

I notice that Barbara is lying in the centre of the circle with her head towards the Hierophant—archetype of the High Priest, representative of conscious awakening—connecting one to ones Higher Self, to ones own truth, intuition and insight.

The first thing I am aware of is the high pitched continuous wine of a group of mosquitos about a foot away from my right ear. If a beam of sunlight were not illuminating them, I would think I had severe tinnitus! Mentally I keep them at a distance and then gaze at their frantic luminous dance and say firmly and loudly “no biting”. (strangely, they are very respectful and just torment me with their song throughout!)

I felt I was in the centre of the amphitheatre as I gazed skywards toward the gap where the circle of trees arch high above me leaving a window of blue.

I watch the light aura emanating from the leafy branch tips pulsing and dancing as if responding in active energy exchange around the canopy opening to the sky—expanding and contracting as if in conversation, a silent language not audible but sensual and luminous. This 'communication' between plant species is perhaps something I will learn more about in Iceland? I am going wherever it takes me!

I lie there watching butterflies that follow an erratic path, strange insects darting from tree to tree and the spiral pattern of a leaf as it falls from a great height twirling and somersaulting as it goes.

I am suddenly aware of my journal resting by my side, and I sit up to reach for it. At that precise moment Barbara also sits up and reaches for her lap top as if with perfect symmetry we are purposely choreographed .

We have both been writing for about ten minutes. I look up as I am finishing just as she is doing, once more in synchronicity. 

My right ear is still numb from the persistent drone of the mosquitoes.

Signature Moth Portrait

In July I’ll be embarking on a really exciting adventure - a one month artist residency at Baer Arts Center on the North coast of Iceland, 400km north of Reykjavik on the striking Skagafjour (fjord) . www.baer.is/

Baer Arts Center are providing a studio and accommodation, but to make this adventure work financially I think it is the right moment to create a limited edition archival print of a ‘Signature Moth’ portrait and offer 30 prints for sale.

I just wanted to tell you about this since, in the four years I have been working with the moths and screening the resulting video "Papillons de Nuit,"— http://vimeo.com/28184757 — this is the first time I have offered one of the portraits. 'The Signature Moth' I have chosen, photographed live on my lighted window in the Santa Cruz Mountains, is beautifully symmetrical.  It feels like Magic happens when such symmetry is recorded—like a perfect moment in time.

The print will be on 13” x 16” (33mm x 45mm) matt archival paper—actual size of the print is 12” x 9” (30.5mm x 23mm), The price will be $100 plus postage.

It is a long held dream to work in Midsummer connecting deeply to land like Iceland –photographing, filming, recording sounds and writing. Part of my creative process is to keep a journal and I plan to post extracts frequently on my blog. If you would like to check in, the blog address, diana2iceland.blogspot.com has been set up especially for this new journey. The blog name is 'Diana 2 Iceland and beyond'.

If you would like to support me in this very exciting venture or have contacts who you think would be interested, please email me at dianahobson@sbcglobal.net and we can discuss the details. I will be setting up a paypal account to make it easier for overseas transactions.

It's very exciting to finally let this first portrait fly !
Thank you so much.

Diana