A line of Granite

One of my volunteer roles is a Lundy Island ambassador, so I do take quite a few visits to the Island over the course of a normal year. Whilst on Lundy Island in December 2020, I decided to walk from St Helens Church in the village to the North Light, the route the Lighthouse keepers would have walked from the village to the Lighthouse on the North of the Island. Often this trip would be made in the traditional Lundy fog or at night, so marker stone were put in at regular points to help keep the Keepers on the path. I decided on one similar foggy day to photograph each of the marker stones. Marking my holy point of departure being the church, I walked the 3 miles. I took photos and wanted to count the number of stones, I lost count; but it was around 90. ( I have tried to count using google earth and most are visible but some less so, I asked the Lundy Field society if they knew, but they don’t either). These marker stones are made out of Lundy granite, most have been set there but others hewn from the actual Lundy rock where they stand.

I have used these stones of granite for a couple of my artwork pieces, However I wanted to focus on the nature of the granite and associate my work to the linear aspect that represented the long line of stones.

In the making of the work I had to learn how to crop out the rocks to remove the backgrounds which I did in Photoshop. I then took the images into photoshops and laid them out to create a page in indesign, which then was laid out in a format which would form a meandering book by simply cutting and folding. Problems encountered in making the book were ensuring that images and the small amount of text were the right way up, i mocked up a non digital format first which helped. The final outcome i am really pleased with, it works digitally. I would like to have extended the images and maybe this is something i can do when at college. The feedback I got was that there was more interplay and the participatory nature of and with the book than the concertina book that I created.

Reflection:

The final outcome i am pleased with, it works digitally. I would like to have extended the images to include more but the task was time consuming and I only had A4 paper. I could add text to it, maybe to represent the thoughts and feelings of the walk. Similar to Richard Long textworks.

The mini artist book is exciting and I could research the use of different paper and forms. I have also found there is a whole genre of miniature books. I do not yet feel that I have involved the nature of the granite. I wanted to focus on the nature of granite, so by cutting out the background the main focus became the rock and not the landscape. However by doing this I have cut out the foggy landscape and the feel of the walk. I have indeed now moved away from representing the feelings of the walk but more an outcome of the walk.