This digest revels in the in-between, the transitional, the presence of absence. My camera with its dials and knobs and sharp focus has taken me into the blur of things. It has taught me that because things can't be measured it doesn't mean that it isn't there. The spirit of things, the essence of our places is as real as my shutter button.
I lost my dad in 2008 and I think that’s when it all started - I took his spirit out with me on my first forays into deep time; sharing with him my findings - as if he was taking part in an evolving life, a new man emerging from the chrysalis of breakdown and depression.
The service is coming to an end. I can tell by the rhythm and the tone of the minister’s voice rather than the words. I look at the strangers sat around me and ask myself, ‘where do I fit in with all of this?’
So here, in one place, we find layers of meaning and layers of firsts: movement, industry, politics, science, architecture and belief, all tied, in some way, to this ground. There’s no city like this - every layer of soil put down here is the first in the journey towards the modern world.
What is being gathered here is not just material, but understanding. That we are shaped by these places, as much as we shape them.
Again there came an unfurling and opening up that comes with looking into another creature’s eye - but this time it was with a building.
Much of what matters most in a landscape exists beyond the influencer’s register - beyond the frame of an Instagram filter, beyond the compression of a TikTok meme, beyond the quick visual shorthand that persuades us we have already seen enough.
During my travels for In Pursuit of Spring - whilst I painted every day, my hands became a chromatic register of the day's findings - as well as my camera, pen and sketchbook.
A journey (now complete) on my camper-van-camino from the Scottish Highlands to Cornwall. Each day, I’ll write a short post and produce a watercolour drawn from the day’s experiences.
In Pursuit of Spring Special Edition - Part One
✨ Wondering why I ask for support?
An Anxiety of Memberships