Journeys, it is said, have three phases: arrival, discovery, and departure. This was certainly true of my journey to Grand Manan Island.

Each phase offered its own visual experience: The arrival phase provided a sense of place. The discovery phase elicited a desire to document and record. The departure phase was marked by a feeling of looking back, a remembrance of visual experiences not so much found as re-discovered.

The sense of place began on the ferry, where the ship’s aesthetic asserted itself with its pastel palette, functional sensibility, and soothing zen-like atmosphere. I was reminded of working in the darkroom and waiting for an image to present itself. When the ferry arrived at North Head, we made our way to our home base, a 19th century house with wide-planked wood floors, large, airy windows, and a comfortable ambiance.

The discovery phase was experienced when hiking around the island and visiting places with names like The Bishop, Long Eddy Point, Swallowtail, and Poodle Lane. Grand Manan is located in the Bay of Fundy off the coast of New Brunswick, the biggest island of an archipelago of more than 20 islands. Shaped roughly like a triangle, Grand Manan is 25 kilometers long and 10 kilometers at its widest point. Trails and footpaths snake all over the coastline. The Hole in the Wall rock formation is located on the northern end of the island, overlooking Whale Cove and providing a view of Seven Days Work, cliffs created by successive flows of volcanic lava. At the southern end of the island are two groupings of large, rounded, granite boulders known as Upper and Lower Flock of Sheep that glaciers had deposited 15 thousand years ago. Between Hole in the Wall and Flock of Sheep, I saw many compelling sights, from sweeping vistas to close-up encounters with exquisite natural objects.

The technique of digitally stitching a single panorama from multiple images creates a curious effect. Inevitably there are faint, barely perceptible signs of shifting perspective and overlapping sequences which produce a faint impression of something unreal and other-worldly. The panorama images in this exhibit were created slowly and gradually, long after my departure from Grand Manan, and reflect a sense of dream-like remembrance.

What I experienced during my trip to Grand Manan was an encounter with a visual aesthetic that corresponded to an internal journey. The journey renewed my spirits.

Thanks to ViewPoint Gallery for providing the venue for this exhibit. Thanks to Mary Blatherwick for extending an invitation to her home in North Head. And special thanks to David Roback for being my companion during the trip to Grand Manan and, indeed, all of my journeys.

Kathleen Flanagan
October 2007