Stepping-stones to the edge: artistic expressions of islandness in an ocean of islands

• Main Author: Brinklow, L
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada 2013
• Subjects: Studies in Creative Arts and Writing; Art Theory and Criticism; Art Theory and Criticism not elsewhere classified; Great Southern Ocean; Main Island; Southern Ocean; Stepping Stones; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.islandstudies.ca/node/407; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/85682

Since the earliest of times, islands have captured the artistic imaginationand,often, for the artist who finds his or her muse in being islanded, the smaller the island thebetter. Archipelagos offer an ideal setting for artists who take their inspiration from place: onsmall islands off islands they can experience an intensity of island living they might nototherwise have on a main island: boundedness and connection, isolation and community. Thispaper examines expressions of islandness by artists who live on islands off islands that arepoles apart archipelagos of the Canadian North Atlantic and the Great Southern Ocean. Itdraws upon interviews with those artists and writers to consider the nature of humansattachment and attraction to islands, exploring through the lens of phenomenology whatStratford et al. call the entanglement between and among islands.