Hills of Wairarapa, Settling

Hills of Wairarapa , Settling, Map collage, mixed media on board, 32x77cm

Unending hills into mountains into sky: the unending space humbles the small structure. Pockets of thick bush and rows of groomed trees and fields float in the swells and dips of this ocean of earth and rock.

In humility is strength and resolve to understand this world and persevere. You have chosen this world and this world will show you how to thrive.

The map showing through speaks to our ideas of trying to measure, categorize and contain the enormity of land and sky. Simultaneously, the maps extend ideas of space beyond the physical painting.

It is not man who settles the land, but the land who settles the man.