Sea anchor
I’m working with another artist on an online exhibition, and we’ve been sharing our ideas about how art anchors us in time and place (look out for announcements here soon). That’s had me thinking about the anchor as metaphor.
I found that I didn’t much like the feeling of ‘being anchored’ – to me, rather than being comfortably held, it sounds like being hobbled, fixed in place, tethered. I react to that feeling with a need to be free, to be able to move out from where I’m at.
Then I discovered the sea anchor -
sea anchors are designed to slow a boat or allow it to hold station in extreme weather conditions. They can prevent a possible capsize, roll or broach by keeping the bow or stern facing the weather.
sea anchors … are typically rigged from the bow to keep it into the wind. A sea anchor will hold the boat almost stationary, producing a very gentle downwind drift.
Yachting World
This kind of anchor speaks to my need for stabilizing and for the drifting that it allows. My art practice continues to work like a sea anchor to keep me facing the weather. And I’m content that the place where I am sea-anchored just now is a low-lying island off the west coast of Scotland.
What’s working as your sea anchor these days?
