St Cuthbert's Way - Melrose to the Holy Island

Lindisfarne Crossing, Emma Arthur (2015)

This is an experimental collage created to represent a contemporary piece of art for a modern / post-modern pilgrimage. The terminology used to describe a pilgrimage today varies from researcher to researcher.

The image is a combination of my own photographs, a drawing, writing and royalty free images. I have tried to capture the feeling of moving through time and space with this image by firstly having footprints cross the image from the bottom left to the top right. The footprints cross a ruined arch, then the rugged terrain to finally end up moving along the beach behind the mount. The beach is where the Vikings landed when they raided the island in 793 AD. My name has been written in Viking runes to indicate the past presence of Vikings on the island. The mood of the image, created by colour, tone and ruggedness aims to take us back in time to experience the foreboding the monks must have felt at the time of the raid.

I am quite pleased with the way I finally managed to arrange the elements on the image as this took some time. This together with the mood creates the effect I tried to capture. However, the bright section in the top right is a little distracting and although I tried to do something with this, I only made it worse. Clearly, I still have much to learn when creating digital art. Another point which disappointed me was the use of a royalty free image for the mount and castle. I could not find the one I took myself. This highlights another weakness in my goal to be a digital artist - I have not managed to create a good filing system for all my images. I have thousands of images taken over many years - it will take months to file them under categories as I will have to start from scratch.

I did this pilgrimage many years ago and found reaching the distination exhilerating. It is a place which arouses many emotions. The wild nature combined with its distinctive history is unique. I remember a strange feeling of isolation and vulnerability while walking on the beach where the Vikings landed. I will be walking the St Cuthbert's Pilgrimage again this summer to make a guide book and am considering using this image as the book cover.

Apparantly, St. Cutherbert's Way is one of the UK's most walked and recognised pilgrim routes according to 'Walking Support' website.

References

English Heritage, History of Lindesfarne Priory, Available at: www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/lindisfarne-priory/history-and-research/history/, [Accessed: 21st January 2015]

Walking Support, (2010) Available at: www.walkingsupport.co.uk/pilgrimage.html, [Accessed:20th January 2015].