On ice!

This morning there were perfect clouds floating above the glacier, so I took the plunge and went on my glacier hike.  It is strictly a thing to be done with a guide, as it can be very dangerous. I was a little apprehensive (well, truthfully? I've had moments of terror at the prospect...imagining falling into a crevasse, etc.), but as it turned out I felt quite safe. Of course, the young woman who booked the hike tried to help by telling me that most crevasses are only 40 meters deep and that the guides can fish you out if you fall in (register 8.0 on the anxiety Richter scale!). The guides have amazing training, including mountaineering and search and rescue. Of course they all look like they are 16... They fit each of us with crampons (think lots of 1-inch spikes on your feet). The ice axe looks serious but is mostly used as a walking stick. Our guide Tryggvi told us that most people who fall do so because they are gawking or trying to take pictures and trip themselves by catching a pantleg on the crampon spikes. So the trick is to walk like a bowlegged cowboy and plant each foot with a stomp.

So we went stomping up and down ridges, peeking into cracks and holes. I'd been looking at glaciers from as close as I could get, but nothing is quite like standing on top of one. It's impossible to convey the scale and the intricacy of blue/white/grey ridges, fissures and holes. Wow! I will never forget this experience, regardless of photos. I took a few hundred photos, with the light doing all kinds of things and finally going to full-on sun. We shall see what they turn into...

And that was just the morning! I decided I couldn't just go back to my guesthouse, so went on another hike, this time over the other side of the plateau and down to the glacial river that runs along the edge of the volcanic desert. The way back was through the desert, and I can't say I really enjoyed that, but it was definitely unique.

Tomorrow I drive back to Reykjavik, leaving the next morning by bus to my residency at NES for the month of June. I am tired of living out of car and suitcase, so looking forward to settled in place for a month.

Getting fitted for crampons

Tryggvi chops steps for us!

On top of the world...

River valley by the volcanic desert

Waiting for clouds in Skaftafell

Wow, where to start? The last 2 days have been jammed full. Too sunny on the glacier yesterday, so I went hiking and had a beautiful day. I hiked up to Svartifoss waterfall, which is surrounded by basalt columns, looking a bit like a pipe organ and reminding me strongly of similar basalt formations at Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. From there I went on to Sel, site of a former farm from the early 1900's where turf-roofed buildings still stand. It looks out over an endless-seeming stretch of black sand/gravel desert formed by devastating volcanic eruptions and flooding. It is hard to believe that this used to be a fertile farming area, as the desert is incredibly bleak, not a living thing in it. Part of the area is called Oraefi, which means "wasteland". From there I hiked over a high alpine plateau and got an amazing bird's-eye view of Skaftafellsjokul, one of the glacial tongues that comes down from the enormous Vatnajokul glacier. With lots of daylight left (there's kinda nothing BUT daylight at this time of year!), I drove east to pay homage to the glacial lagoon Jokulsarlon, one of my favorite places from my visit last year.

Svartifoss

turf-roofed farm buildings at Sel, volcanic desert

Skaftafellsjokul glacier tongue

Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon with icebergs

To the south coast (again....???)

Here I am, returning to Iceland's south coast again. This is such a beautiful place, and my mission this time is to get up on the glaciers to photograph. I was worried that it would rain all the time I was here, but instead there's too much dang sun! Sunlight on ice just does not work for photography. So I am hoping for clouds... My drive down was sunny and warm, with short stops at Skogarfoss waterfall and Vik, then on to my guesthouse near Skaftafell National Park.

Skogarfoss (didn't I take this picture last year?)

Who says Iceland is desolate? Lupines and giant dandelions

Black sand beach at Vik

Tiny guesthouse room with Mondrian

Across from the guesthouse and a typical south coast farm setting

tiny sod-roofed church near the guesthouse

A day of rest in Reykjavik

After sleeping for 10 hours (a record for me!) I woke up to sunny skies and mild temps. You can never tell about the weather here—they say it snowed last week, and the mountaintops are still white. I had planned to return to the city flea market to look for old maps, but today is a holiday and it was closed, so I went for 2 glorious long walks. The first was out past Reykjavik's Ráðhús, or city hall, and it's "pond". Like many things in Iceland, City Hall is surprisingly small. As seems to be the case on any sunny day, everyone was out in the sun feeding ducks and drinking coffee. (Decaf is not favored here, and I could not find it in any grocery store or in my favorite coffeehouse, finally found a bag to buy in the cafe at the National Museum). After circling back to my guesthouse for lunch, I spent the afternoon walking past the harbor and along the water for a couple of miles.

Ráðhús

Some cheap eats in Reykjavik, a famous hotdog stand with Harpa concert hall and snow-capped peak behind

My favorite coffehouse, but alas, no decaf...

The lovely, impossible Icelandic language

The city from my waterside walk

Greetings from Iceland (again)!

So here I am back in Iceland and it feels like an old friend. I arrived this morning (2:00 a.m. NY time), will spend 2 days in Reykjavik to recover from a sleepless flight, then off to the South coast for a couple of days. I'm hoping the good weather holds and I can get up on the glaciers (with a guide) to photograph. Then it's up north to a month's residency at NES in Skagastrond. More to come on all of that...

Visit to Headlands

So I was home for a couple of months, except for a week visiting family in California. My visit there happened to coincide with Open House at Headlands Center for the Arts, so... residency junkie that I've turned out to be... I had to go check it out. It's on a former military base in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco, and a stunning location! Of course, it being San Francisco, it was foggy. The buildings are a little military-strange and very funky. Lots of peeling paint and old army stuff, but man, what space! Headlands has residents who come for a month or two like other residencies, but they also provide studios to local artists who are accepted for their Affiliate Artists program. And they grant a year-long residency to 4 grad students graduating from the SF area art schools. So it is a big group in a big space. If you wanted to work on installation projects, this would be the place!

The studio buildings

Some of the larger studios (some are quite small too)

A full wood shop

An installation piece in the former gym

Residents' housing

And look what's just down the hill...

But look what's right next door—a former nuclear missile site. It is now a historic site run by the park service, and one can go down in the launching elevator and look at the missile (warheads removed long ago...). So we did, of course. Everything looked so old and old-fashioned, It's hard to believe the things would have worked. I have to say that going from artist's studios to listening to retired missile crewmen talk about missiles as a nuclear deterrent was jarring to say the least. At least the rest of the old base has been put to better use.

Oops, blogging slacker...

Is it really the end of May? Have I really not posted since February? Well, it looks like a quick transition, but it really was not—I've just arrived in Iceland again. More on that later.

I meant to post some more photos of Virginia and kind of tie up that experience. It was really a different kind of place for me, with 24 people at meals, lots of readings, etc., much more social than the small-group things I'd been going to. Residents were leaving and new ones coming all the time, a dynamic that has both good and bad things about it. Jerry, who'd been at Caldera with me showed up the last week I was there.

And I had a car for once, so I could drive down with 50 encaustic panels and all my tools in the back. It was really great to actually finish things there since I'd been making so many mockups at other residencies. It was an incredibly productive month and I finished as astonishing 50 encaustic pieces. (there are 100 in the group that I want to do, so 50 more to go). Having an uncluttered, ventilated space to do that in was really fabulous, and I could see so much more of what was evolving by working on the whole group at once. That tells me it may be time to restructure my home studio.

During the last week in Virginia I could see that the work was going to get done, so I took a couple of day off and went hiking with some other residents. VCCA is close to the Blue Ridge Mountains, so there are plenty of places to go and taking a break was a good idea.

Crabtree Falls

Lots of evidence of artists in the woods...

I added my name on the edge of the studio door...

And went back to the real world.