ENTERING THE DARK – ETCHINGS
It’s not just the unique beautiful light of the northern hemisphere that shapes the colours of northern painters, but most importantly is the ABSENCE OF LIGHT that in part shapes the northern aesthetic. Shetland winters have to be experienced in their entirety to fully feel and understand how physiologically intense they can be. The intense darkness, short days, coupled with relative isolation makes for a very intense experience that can easily start to manifest as depression in the shape of seasonal adjustment disorder. I’ve gone through 26 Shetland winters, and my survival method has always been creativity, and this is the time of year when I work hardest. There is literally nowhere else to go other to tap into your own inner reserves and imagination, and this can be very intense indeed.
A lot of people move to Shetland in search of paradise, (which indeed it is) but what they do not expect to find is the intense confrontation with self, that northern winters induce, and a common pattern is to leave after the third winter. This confrontation with self can sometimes be negative in the form of the high rates of alcoholism in the northern regions, but it can also be positive in terms of the creativity it provokes. I’ve made a very conscious in recent years to try to face the darkness head on, be it inner darkness or outer darkness and try to draw myself through the Shetland winters and this series of etchings is part of that sequence.