Agnes Jamieson Gallery

This mixed media watercolour and graphite on nautical sailing chart paper, 35 h x 40 w cm framed c. 2020 is from the Wrapped Boats series. This series is the precursor to what became the larger In Search of Bearings Project.  In Wrapped Boats, I superimpose a sketch of my first-hand observations of melting Arctic glaciers, and the intimate yet stark portrait-like sketches of wrapped boats as on the winter-hard, or shore. This three-pronged combination references the collapse of global geographies and changing coastal cultural bearings that challenges navigating the uncertainties of climate change. I intend the corporal shapes and folds of the wrapped boats to reinforce this idea that hints at a subsurface presence. They visually echo my sketches of melting glaciers revealing similar mountain shapes from another geological time.  The navigation chart used in this work is from the area around Rimouski on the St. Lawrence Seaway. The larger project works with more than 70 full navigation charts of The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway.