They Who Go Down to the Sea in Ships

Invictus, Monotype, 15 1/4 x 22 in.
















Although my surname might conjure a heritage comfortable at sea, I have had little experience with boats or for that matter large bodies of water until moving to an island in the Pacific Northwest. 

My friendship with families who fish professionally and the stories I have heard them tell have however engaged my imagination and sincere appreciation of what ingenuity, fortitude and mind over matter it must surely take to make a living from a boat afloat at sea. 

I find the concept frightening.  Much of my fear though is not about the hard work or uncertainty of nature but the dependency upon ones shipmates, their strengths, weaknesses and the emotional baggage all of us are born to and carry in our personal odysseys. 

Several Monotypes I have made for the 2010 Vashon Island Art Studio Tour illustrate my reflections upon all of the above and are presented within the context of Odysseus’s misadventures and long voyage home to his beloved wife, Penelope and island kingdom, Ithaca. 

Two of those Monotypes, Invictus I and Invictus II, are named for and reference the last lines of William Ernest Henley’s poem, Invictus.   

“It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul”.

The Latin translation of invictus is “the undefeated” and though Henley’s words are a wonderful declaration of responsibility and self realization my imagery also reflects the reality that each of us are dependent upon our friends, family, and shipmates even in our personal odysseys.  I may be the master of my fate and captain of my soul but we are, each, all, in the same boat (together).

Invictus ll, Monotype, 10 5/8 x 13 1/2 in.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Delighted to show with these Fine Art Print Artists! Quartermaster Press and invited guests at the Hardware Store Restaurant on Vashon Island Nov 5-30, 2021.
Read more

Let's All Dance

Image
The Vashon Heritage Museum has hosted the award winning exhibit "In and Out, Being LGBTQ on Vashon Island" since June of 2019.  Originally slated to run until March of 2020 it's been on exhibit until this week, September 6, 2021.   I'm honored to have been asked to create five window panels for the exhibit and be a part of the creative process envisioned by Deb Phillimore, Ellen Kritzman. Stephen Silha, Jesica De Wire, Bruce Haulman and the inspired advisory board they assembled. We all identify with the music of our time.  I asked friends to share the music they identified as significant in their lives, relationships and coming out story.  Their music inspired the monotype/collagraph prints with cut and printed wood sculpture that became the Let's All Dance window panels for the exhibit.  The panels were each 68 x 36 in. and titled (in the order above) Small Town Boy, The Band Played On, Let's All Dance, Anthem and Break Free. Here's a wonderful ...
Read more

Yerevan

Image
Yerevan (with detail), is a monotype print collage in my Magic Carpet Ride series. Called The Pink City, it’s Armenia’s capital. Yerevan is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and was founded by another name (Erebuni) in 782 B.C.E., though the territory was settled in the 4th millennium B.C.E. The Pink City gets its name by way of its building material, a pink stone called tuft, the compacted ash, from Mount Ararat that towers, at a distance, over Yerevan. Yerevan is showing in Pink, Unpacked , an exhibit presented by Seattle Print Arts that explores both pink as color and pink as concept.  March 11-May 1, 2024 at  M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, Seattle WA.
Read more