Homage

Homage

When I visited St. Margaret’s 12th century chapel in the Edinburgh Castle, it was a sacred place for me. So much so that I came back and visited it a second time. The sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows sending splashes of color on the rough hewn walls. It drew me in and I sat quietly. That was my first introduction to St. Margaret. 

I was so moved by my experience that I opted to visit another place where she had been: the Dunfermline Abbey, which was founded by St. Margaret. It is also where she was buried. I was not surprised that Dunfermline Abbey also felt sacred. 

This piece is created from two different perspectives of the interior of the Dunfermline Abbey Church, with its time-weathered columns and arches seeping with traces from the past.

Size: (h x w) 32" x 24"

Media: Phototransfer and pastels on maple

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Shrouded

Shrouded

When I arrived on the Isle of Iona it was blanketed in a hazy fog.  The first place I visited was the Nunnery ruins, which poked mysteriously through the haze making it feel very sacred and still. The haze really heightened my experience of the ruins. I visited again later after the fog had lifted, but it was never quite the same without this shroud of mystery.

Size: (h x w) 20" x 16" framed

Media: Digital photography

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Enchanted

Enchanted

I am not sure I have ever been so surprised by beauty as when I saw this meadow carpeted with millions of purple flowers. It was on the Isle of Mull, in Scotland, and I had just pulled over to wander around an old churchyard in Gruline and was just getting back on the road to keep on schedule when the mass of purple drew me in. I couldn't resist! 

It is the kind of experience where you want to breathe it in deeply and savor it for the future. (Like what we do in Ohio on an unseasonably warm day, when there is still threat of cold and snow). If only we could fully conjure up these moments again so vividly! 

Size: (h x w) 16" x 24"

Media: Digital photography on canvas

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Remains

A photograph of the Nunnery ruins on the Isle of Iona, in Scotland, is combined with an image of sheep grazing on a nearby hillside. As such, the remains of the nunnery merge with the flock that remains in the pasture offering a reflection on time and place. 

Size: (h x w) 20" x 16"

Media: Digital composition

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Buttressed

This piece contains overlapping images of the flying buttresses of Dunfermline Abbey in Scotland. These exterior elements provide the support for the interior space. To me that is a beautiful, transcendent thought.

Size (h x w): 30" x 20"

Media: Original digital composition on canvas

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Memorialized

While driving toward Iona, Scotland, I randomly pulled over to get a better look at a nearby lake, appropriately named Lake Awe.  I had no idea that just ahead a charming little church, St. Conan’s Kirk, was nestled in the trees with terraces overlooking the lake. 

As I wandered closer, I heard the most glorious sound spilling out from the church-- such amazingly beautiful music! Yet, it was Sunday afternoon, long after church would have let out.  It turns out a Dutch choir had stopped to practice inside the church on their way to a choir competition.

The unexpected surprise in the beauty of the music, the humble charm of the stone church with its lakefront terraces, and the glimmering lake beyond combined into a very moving experience.  I lingered there for a long time. I have tried to capture this experience visually by combining a photo of Lake Awe, shot from one of the terraces, with an image of a locked off side chapel, with light streaming in. Together, they seem to “memorialize” the beauty of that moment.

Size: (h x w) 16" x 24"
Media: Original digital composition on canvas
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All Around

A photo of doors leading out from the Iona Abbey, on the Isle of Iona in Scotland, are intertwined with two other images: one of the chapel of St. Margaret at the Edinburgh Castle and the other of a meadow that was carpeted with beautiful purple flowers.  I wanted to convey fluid borders of beauty and the Divine.

Size (h x w) 14" x 11"

Media: Original digital print on arches paper

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Overview

This piece is a visual overview of the beautiful country of Scotland.  The interior and exterior perspectives simultaneously frame the alluring green landscape by the sea with the aged structures that hint of days long past.  It is created from an image looking out a window of the Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull and an image of lamps on old stone walls within the Edinburgh Castle.

Size (h x w) 24" x 16"

Media: Digital photography on canvas

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Scotland: Full of surprises and inspiration

Photo courtesy of Connie Collins.  St. Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle.  My first thin place experience in Scotland, despite having arrived that morning after a red-eye flight and being jet-lagged!

Thank you again to all who supported me with my Iona Imagery project.  Special thanks to: Barbara J., Lexi D., Pamela Daum, Tom and Joyce Waalkes, Sharon and Jim Charmley, Fredlee Votaw, Brett and Brenda Woudenberg, Emil Alecusan, Jeff Dreyer, Su Nimon, Robb Hankins, Heidi Beke Harrigan, Marcia Everett, Barb Walker, & Paul and Gail Wetherell-Sack for helping to financially support this project! (And to my husband, Scott, who is not only helping to financially support my project, but who has supported and affirmed my calling as an artist all along the way!).

I am so deeply grateful for all of your help to make this trip and this project possible.  I have over 2,000 photos to work with for this new body of work! 

My trip to Scotland was productive and full of meaningful surprises and inspiration.  I went to Scotland with the distinct mission of trying to capture the essence of thin places* on the Isle of Iona. What I didn't anticipate was that I would stumble upon thin places in other areas of Scotland as well, not just on Iona.  A pleasant surprise indeed!

This new body of work created with imagery from Scotland will be entitled Traces.  I have been pondering the idea of traces a lot.  Thin places seem to have a spiritual residue, a trace left from the past.  I like the idea that the past seeps viscerally into the present in these places of sacred thinness and beauty.  It inspires and intrigues me -- and I want to portray my experiences of these spiritual traces in my new work.  Wish me luck!


*Thin places are times or places where the veil between the Divine and human is thinner or more permeable, allowing for a deeper sense of God's presence.

Visions

This piece is entitled Visions and was created with imagery I captured while in Assisi, Italy working on my Thin Places project. It was created by fusing two photos.  One image is of a fresco from the exterior of the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, located just outside of Assisi.  The other is of a medieval alleyway winding through the town.  I like how the images work together to create the sense of a vision unfolding ahead.  It conveys a trace of a thin place.  This glimmer of the unknown-- that which is just beyond-- continues to draw me in.

I am very excited to continue my work exploring thin places.  I will be traveling to Scotland May 30-June 8 to capture imagery to create a new body of work that portrays thin places.  I am particularly interested in Iona, which is a very small island in Scotland that is considered a thin place.  I am very eager to explore and experience this place!

But I wouldn't be doing this without the amazing support and encouragement of so many people! I am grateful for those who really "get" this project and want to see it succeed.  A friend recently wrote me: "This is an exciting part of your art journey, life journey too... enjoy/share/create/teach... but most of all = GROW! "   Thanks, my friend, I plan to!

For more information about my upcoming project, visit my Iona Imagery Kickstarter page!

Size: (h x w) 20" x 16"
Media: Digital Photography
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