The following are excerpts from the journal and sketchbooks Frank Webster kept when he visited the Vatnajökull ice cap region in Iceland last August.
“Nature: Thinkest thou then that the world was made for thee? It is time thou knowest that in my designs, operations and decrees, I never gave a thought to the happiness or unhappiness of man. If I cause you to suffer, I am unaware of the fact; nor do I perceive that I can in any way give you pleasure. What I do is in no sense done for your enjoyment or benefit, as you seem to think. Finally, if I by chance exterminate your species, I should not know it.”
—Giacomo Leopardi, Dialogue Between Nature & an Icelander, 1824
Hoffellsjökull
Weather improved a bit so painted along the lagoon. Moved around the tongue of the glacier working until a mist rolled in and a light rain fell. This is what should be done here: paint glaciers. Study and document them—they are important subjects.
Fjallsjökull
The dense fog lifted but the clouds remained. Hiking around Fjallsárlón was good. Stopped to try my hand at recording the scene. One could taste the cold of the ice in the air.
Skaftafell
Atmosphere—the movement of vapors is what’s important. Gloomy on the climb up but sunlight overlooking Skaftafellsjökull. Some rain at camp in the evening.
Heinaberg
Beautiful weather on the rocky way to the glacial lagoon Heinabergslón. The feeder glacier, Heinabergsjökull, is slowly shrinking. Skálafellsjökull, the previous snout of the glacier, is now about 2 kilometers away from the lagoon—giving the visual effect of two glacial termini. The hills and mounds on either side are gouged and scarred by the now disappeared ice. Low rippling hills radiate in concave waves from the water’s edge. The land tells a tale of retreat.
About the author: Frank Webster is the recipient of a Queens Arts Fund New Works Grant, the NYFA Fellowship in Painting, and the Pollock Krasner Individual Artist Award and has had residencies at Arctic Circle Residency, Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Ucross Foundation, Yaddo, and MacDowell Colony. He is represented by the Isabel Sullivan Gallery in Tribeca.
