Outer Islands – Inner worlds 2022
Sub Antarctic Islands 2021
I have been away from the port of Bluff for one week now, yet it seems long ago. It feels like a strange sensation to be so isolated from everything, from my beautiful family especially. The old world is so removed from me.
I love this isolation so much it scares me. I think of these islands, their majesty, the wilds, the extreme nature and abundance of life they cradle. This is an absolutely stunning natural world, so invigorating, so healing, everything one could ever desire in seeing such places.
The islands possess a spiritual magic, a magic almost surreal in splendour. There is an energy that as humans we have almost lost the ability to feel.
Birds come to you
Flowers grow up around you.
I hope through my paintings of this place you can experience the ecstasy I feel in the splendour of this wild, rough extreme of the world. Nature almost unspoiled by man, gardens of Eden, unique in every way, massive unique super species of plants and animals. The raw power of these islands shook themselves free of humanity, repelling the force of colonisation. Now you are healing, unscathed for the most part.
A truly sacred treasure upon this earth.
Reflections from home, Aotearoa 2022
I have been away for a year and a half, yet it seems like yesterday. You have left me with a hollow in my heart and a deeper desire to live like you do, wild and free. I long to be able to notice nature and feel that power, to allow the elements to dictate life.
I am home now in my inner world, my beloved family, my paradise of Pigeon Bay.
I’ve come home changed though, it’s true. You have affected me, crept under my skin. I see around me the beauty every day, but I see more of the damage, the destruction that is so normalised in our lives. Our poor land.
Te Pataka o Rakaihautu/Banks Peninsula you are so similar to the islands of my dreams, but your burden of hosting humanity has been so heavy.
You would have been such a treasure, an absolute heaven on earth with your abundant forests and plentiful birds, your kind climate and unique flora and fauna. How I lament what we have done to you. How could I not have known the true colour of the sea?
Birds still come to you
but fewer
forests and flowers try to grow up around you
Your ochre soils spill into the bays.
Looking out
A cavern in the islands
ceaselessly carved round and perfect
an opening to the inner world
a mirror, self-reflection
desire longing
loneliness and love.
Islands out at sea
see
visible only in the cold clear days.
A snare, a trap
A lure - Illusion
Your beauty.
You make a wreck of me.