Cianalas is Scottish Gaelic for longing, nostalgia, homesickness. Beyond this basic translation, it can also be understood as a deeply embodied sense of belonging to place. Coming from the Outer Hebrides, this word describes a true knowing of where your roots are held.
Chapter 1: Salt
Salt is an effort to unearth the stories of my maternal family’s history in aquaculture and their day-to-day living on the island of Eastport in Downeast, Maine. This research-driven work contemplates the relationship my family and ancestors have and had to landscape and what impacted their decision to migrate away from their rural livelihoods in aquaculture. Through research into ancestral archives, I awaken to stories of place around dams, Maine’s watersheds, rising sea levels, Downeast Maine's foodways, working waterfronts, and the many pieces that make up this remote island’s ecologies.
at the working waterfront
2024 | Handcut bristol paper, Rockweed seaweed eco-printed parchment paper | 37 L x 31 W x 10 D cm
Dilapidated boardwalk at working waterfront in Downeast, ME.