The images for these collages all came from National Geographic’s, one from an old art book, plus “at the end of the world” from an art newspaper. I selected the images initially for their colour and then this story appeared about sea voyages and the fantastical “discoveries” that were made and the dragons and monsters that lurked on distant areas of the map marked with “here be dragons”.

The painting which is reminiscent of Hokusai’s The Great Wave is by Kinuko Y. Craft and depicts Yoshida Shoin rowing to Commodore Matthew Perry’s black ship in an attempt to stow away (wiki). I took the image from a National Geographic from 1984 (you can find a digital copy of it here).

The light blue ship is from an advert for Tap Air and the birds from a French textile design. I like how the ship sails away from the stormy scene Kinuko creates, and towards the birds who look on in disbelief or perhaps shock.

The second collage is all from National Geographic’s and shows some painted scraps, icy scenes and more dragons. It reminds me of a an episode of the Infinite Monkey Cage podcast “Oceans: What Remains to Be Discovered?” I listened to recently. They discussed the various strange creatures of the deep seas. Perhaps not dragons, but definitely strange and some yet to be discovered.