Repose

12:00am Baer 5/22/15

With all the best intentions, I must relinquish myself from posting to this blog during the rest of my stay here at Baer (this time).  I find the days long, but short in number.  I care about the content of this blog and it's aesthetic. Due to time restraints, I have decided to spend my remaining time in the physical field, collecting materials and making.  When I return to the states I hope to revisit this blog, with a complete presentation of my experience.

Takk! (Thank you)

The sun shed from the south,
the moon's companion,
with its right hand over
the rim of the sky.
The sun did not know
where to seek repose,
the stars did not know
where they could rest,
the moon did not know
what might it had.

Stanza 5. Völuspá (The Prophesy) translated by Bernard Scudder

Mapping Place, Past & Present. Day 2. Attack of the Birds.

This day was full of humor from the gods.  Odin, Freyia, Thor? It was a day of opposites or splits.  Started out with sun and ended with hail.  One hour of mapping tells it all.

Day 2

#1 3:21pm

I remember sitting here my first day, then, wondering how would I or could I paint this?  I remember falling in love with the sparkles towards the end of the trip and promising to return.  Today the sun is shining and casting starlight on the water.  I feel safe.  I enjoy the screaming birds.

#2 3:42pm

Sat listening.  Feeling the wind and sun on my face.  Looking at the stripes of blues and beige.  Thinking how to slow down, to stay here.

***At this point my measuring yarn broke

#3 3:54

My swan clock.  The daily crossing ritual.  Today a different birds wing marks my path.

4# 4:02

Discovered this little soft spot.  Protected by the small hill.  Peaceful sounds. HARK!  BATTLE CRY!

5# 4:14

Noticing the perfect mosaic of stone in the black sand.

6# 4:18

These beautiful orange rocks, lapping water.

7# 4:21

When deciding which rock to bring back, I look down and see this heart rock.

8# 4:42

The cracking earth.  It's begun to rain.

***Field Notes

It started out sunny with beautiful bird song.  The bird song became battle cries and I had to be vigilant against attack.  I found two pieces of drift wood that acted as both clubs, and musical instruments.  I found a wing of this type of angry bird, known as Kria, (or arctic tern), at the same point that my swans used to cross.  I collected two heart shaped rocks.  My string broke, leaving only time to measure distance.  Returning back it began to hail.  I wondered, "Am I boring?"  I wonder now, "Who invented mapping?  What did early maps look like? What did they map?  Do we follow a predestined trail? Do we map to find our way backwards? Is every piece of advice and every biography a map?

I think the only map to follow is one unseen but known by heart.

This map is in the form of the Kria Instruments.  

Mapping Points in Place, Past & Present. Day 1.

I began a new project that I am calling for now, 'Points of Past and Present'.  It is a map, or rather many maps made in to one larger map.  I am revisiting the points in place (here at Baer) that were meaningful to me in 2011.  Each day I set out to a site or area from the past, and I mark both the places then, and now, that call my attention.  I observe the memories, the feelings, and present thoughts, as well as the actual environment.  As I move between these points, I measure the space traveled in time, and physical distance, by using Icelandic wool yarn and my iphone.  I am documenting the experiences with photography, audio recording, writing and video.  I also am collecting treasures on the way.

Since this project is like all my work, with no clear ending known until I arrive...I do not yet know what the maps form will be.  I am trusting the same process that led me to begin following my dream--which is simply heartlistening.  A word I was given here in Iceland in 2011.  The word describes the process of listening with your heart. 

Today I was reminded that the heart is the only true guide to follow.  We each set our own course, and create our own map, perhaps as a way to find our way back in the future?

I've returned to a dream, a waking dream.

Moving through a vision I've never imagined, yet feels so familiar to my soul.  There is an internal choir singing as I drive.

Arrived at Baer.  I am amazed at the comfort I feel returning-- in stark contrast to the anxiety I experienced in 2011.

The beautiful Island out the window beckons a visit.

The midnight sun begins to set 11:30pm

Staying up watching the land and sky paint itself with the midnight sun.  12:00 am.

Here I am alas, four years later, returning to Eylenda.  I am different now.  The Island is different.  Yet, there is a familiarity, a nostalgia, a joy and a heartbreak all rolled in to a new experience.  I will begin mapping this new terrain.