I is for It Turned Me to Admire ...

Hondartza Fraga

After several works of literature inspired by art we now have a work of art that is inspired by literature. This drawing has captivated me. It is entitled 'It Turned Me to Admire the Magnanimity of the Sea Which Will Permit no Records', and is by the artist Hondartza Fraga. It is currently on display in a quiet little corner of the Manchester Art Gallery and Monkey and I came across it quite by chance when we visited a few weeks ago. At first glance it is a book, but look closer and the cover becomes the sea, and it is apparently inspired by a line from Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
I love it, partly because it is a book, but also because of what it manages to achieve; the sea in this drawing appears vast. Most paintings of the sea encompass some land or shore, which gives the sea some bounds, but here it is just sea, empty of vessels, devoid of sky or weather of any kind, and to me this manages to achieve some abstract quality of infinite water. It made me think of arriving at the Pacific Ocean when mum and I went to Costa Rica two years ago and how somehow I could almost feel the vastness of the body of water, in a way that the English Channel is not.

(Linking back to the A to Z Challenge)