It's been a completely new experience for me coming to the Burren. Never before have I pe a cow and a horse on the way to a pub. The weather is cold, windy and rainy. Kind of like very early spring or late fall. We did get lucky a few days where the sun warmed up enough for us to be in T-shirts. I don't think the skirts I brought will see the light of day.
The forced isolation has allowed my mind to rest and begin to put the pieces together of the work I've been doing over the past year. We have begun writing artists statements. I will post my thoughts as I formulate them.
I was struck first by the fossilized worms in the floor of the Newtown Castle at the college. I stretched a piece of sumi paper across the length of the castle and did a rubbing. I am feeling a connection between the fossils and the oil spill. My drawing creates order out of chaos and brings the worms back to life and references caves, coral and the enchanted forest we hike through to get home. It looks dark and complicated. It is my internal landscape. I'm not thrilled about being here and am trying to make the best of it. The shapes of the limestone rocks also resonate with me.
Yesterday Julian visited our studios and he suggested I remove elements from the face and the landscape until nothing else remains then put one thing back. That will be the thing that matters. He said you can start by taking out the shapes. That led to an idea for an installation on the water. I want to cut board in the shapes of the rock and float them on top of the Galway bay to reference the glaciers that cause the ecological damage to the Burren and the shapes of the oil slicks in the gulf.
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