16” x 20”

This image was made by digatally layering a hand-pulled etching over a digitally manipulated historical image of the small wicker and cowhide basket weave boat, called a currach. I was thinking about the fact that, historically, fishermen off the west coast of Ireland did not learn how to swim. “The thinking was that any man who fell overboard was basically dead anyway…All swimming enabled a man to do was prolong his suffering, treading water in the middle of the open ocean for a few days before dying of exposure.” Perhaps I should change the name to “in Memoriam.“ Perhaps these little boats should have been named “courage”!

(image found in Fintan O’Toole’s book A History of Ireland in 100 Objects)

God is good, but don't dance in a currach. -Irish proverb