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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Grandeur of Thistles

Grandeur of Thistles

I saw images of thistles frequently while in Scotland, and for good reason-- the thistle is actually the national emblem of Scotland.

I like how this humble, resilient weed is celebrated. In fact, there are many myths and symbols devoted to it. (Google it, it is quite interesting!)

Many stylized depictions of thistles, such as this finial from a railing, serve as a good reminder that the common can be exquisite and the everyday full of grandeur. 

Size: (h x w) 16" x 8"

Media: Phototransfer on maple

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Illumination

Illumination

The sunlight is glaring through a window in the Great Hall of the Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.  I overlaid this with a celtic cross from Iona, allowing the light from the window to illuminate it.

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

Media" Digital photography

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Remnant of Devotion

Remnant of Devotion

On the Isle of Iona I searched for the Hill of Angels, a place where St. Columba would go to pray that is now considered sacred. It is easy to miss, you can barely find it on the map. It is just a little hill located inside a fenced-in pasture on someone’s farm. 

I climbed over the fence and headed up the small hill.  I sat in quiet near some stones that had been placed as humble offerings by others who had ventured to this site before me. It felt sacred. 

While sitting on the peaceful little knoll, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Some small sheep were making their way in my direction! They lingered and begged for attention. Oddly enough, this felt like a most appropriate greeting on the Hill of Angels.

Size: (h x w) 10" x 20"

Media: Digital photography

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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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Stirring

Stirring

At the National Museum of Scotland, I was intrigued by a sign about ancient ritual offerings in water that noted: “Watery places were favoured for making offerings.  They were seen as boundaries between the human world and the world of the gods, where contact could be made.”  There is something about water and its glittery, fluid movement that touches my soul deeply. (This may have something to do with the fact that I grew up in the Great Lakes state!)

On the way to catch a car ferry, I took some photos of Lake Lubmaig. The water was so peaceful and quiet. I combined this with a shot of the Iona green marble altar in the Iona Abbey. In this piece, the altar and water fuse into a permeable “watery place”.

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

Media: Digital photography

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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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Meditation

Meditation. An image of a window opening within the ruins of a Nunnery on the Isle of Iona, Scotland, is combined with a labyrinth that was created in the sand on a secluded little beach.  Together they create a quiet, meditative space of solace.

Size (h x w): 14" x 11" (matted and framed)

Media: original digital print on arches paper

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The Way

Time to start posting new work created from my Scotland imagery!

The Way

A small chapel sits behind the Iona Abbey on the Isle of Iona.  I would guess that not everyone who visits Iona even ventures into this humble, overshadowed space.  

It was very quiet and peaceful-- a thin place for me.  The light coming in the window of the dark chapel made the silhouette of the cross a focal point.

I overlaid this shot of the window and cross with a photo of the Iona Abbey courtyard to create a perspective that leads to, or through, the cross.

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

Media: Digital photography on canvas

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Symbols

Newly hanging in my studio from my Assisi Thin Places body of work...

Symbols

Mount Subasio, in Assisi, Italy, is said to be a sacred mountain.  On Mount Subasio there is a cave where St. Francis would go to pray and contemplate.  It is called Eremo delle Carceri (Hermitage of St. Francis). 

The whole area near the cave is rich with symbols, from the frescos in the oratory leading to the cave, to sculptures in the hillside, to a variety of crosses, including humble, rough hewn crosses embedded in nature.

I like the mystery of symbols and visual metaphors.  I was especially drawn to the more natural, subtle symbols. I phototransfered two images onto a wood panel.  One image is of an outdoor chapel just down the trail from the cave.  It had an old tree stump with a small cross carved into it and a twig that also looked like a cross.  I fused that image with one of the door that opens to the oratory and cave.  Together they seemed to portray a beauty in subtlety.

Size: (h x w) 24" x 16:
Media: Phototransfer on wood panel (maple)
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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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Iona Imagery Kickstarter Partners

My sincere gratitude goes out to the following people who are partnering with me on my Iona Imagery project.  Their support will help enable me to create a new body of work inspired by my experiences of thin places in Iona, Scotland.  

Special thanks to:

Barbara J.

Pamela Daum, in honor of her mother, Betty Joan White Zucker Milner

Lexi

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 & Gail Wetherell-Sack

To find out more about my Iona Imagery project and how you can back my project please click here to visit my Kickstarter page!

The piece pictured above is part of my Thin Places body of work that was inspired by my thin place experiences in Assisi, Italy.  It is entitled Shelter, and is a combination of two images.  One is a photo of sheep grazing on a peaceful hillside outside of town.  The other is of the Eremo delle Carceri, which is the cave in Mount Subasio where St. Francis used to retreat for prayer and contemplation.  Perhaps it was because the cave was integrated in the quietness of nature, but I found it to feel even more sacred, or thin, than the St. Francis Basilica with all of it's frescoed splendor.

Size (h x w) 12" x 9"
Media: Phototransfer on wood panel
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Iona Imagery Kickstarter Project

I am so pleased to announce that I will be continuing my exploration of thin places in my artwork!  I will be going to Iona, Scotland, an area described by many as a sacred or thin place-- a place where one experiences a more visceral sense of the Divine.  Many people describe thin places as a "thinning" of the divide or veil between heaven and earth.  This concept continues to intrigue and challenge me personally and in my artwork.

While in Iona, I will photograph new imagery and document my "thin" experiences.  Afterward I will begin creating a new body of work that seeks to visually portray the essence of Iona thin places. This project builds upon my recent Assisi Thin Places work, and I am very eager to see how I can push it even further!

If you'd like to learn more about my project or if you want to learn how you can get some artwork inspired by this trip, please click here to visit my Kickstarter page!  Thanks!

Journey

The Basilica of St. Francis is a structure with three levels.  Each descending level grows more simple. The Italian Gothic upper church, built upon an existing church, is the most ornate with brilliant frescoes by Giotto of the life of St. Francis.  The lower church, is smaller, darker, and more intimate, with more humble frescos.  Below this is the crypt that contains the tomb of St. Francis.  This rough hewn space with simple adornments, low lighting, and few distractions turned out to be a quiet space of contemplation for me. 

I used an image of a cross candle holder from the crypt and overlayed it with a photo of a long stone hallway from the fortress, Rocca Maggiore (which is lit sparingly by arrow slits and a few lights), to echo the sense of the deep quiet in the reflective crypt space. 

This is part of the Thin Places body of work created from my artist residency in Assisi, Italy last year. 

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

Media: original digital photography

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Porta

The medieval arched gate seen in this piece is the Porta Cappuccini.  It was built in Assisi around 1316 and is still sound (cars drive through it!).  I overlayed this image with a shot of the winding dirt road that leads to the Arte Studio Ginestrelle, where I stayed for my artist residency.  These images were paired to convey the feel of wandering, of not knowing what lies ahead, and of the intrigue that drives us on. 

Size (h x w) 24" x 18"

Media: Phototransfered digital photography on panel with pastels

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