The Road to Creativity

Week Three of My Artist Residency

Day 13: I’m feeling a bit low energy today. Its hard to get a satisfying rest at night because of the light. I just don’t feel like sleeping when it’s still bright out. I drove to the next town in search of some wine, only to find that the liquor store is only open from 2-6PM and I was several hours too early. Nothing is open very late, so it’s important to remember to pick up whatever you need before they close. Also, if people have told you Iceland is expensive, believe them! Groceries continue to astound me. I went to pick up a handful of items and it was $50 at the cash. I’ve taken to buying some meat on sale or last day reduced and picking up produce on my travels at larger markets. It helps.

Tonight we are planning a communal supper. The suggestion was to bring something from your country, but that’s a real challenge when the ingredients available are very limited. I would have had to bring something like maple syrup with me from home. I opted for rice crispie squares, since someone had left a bag of chocolate covered crispies behind and I was able to procure some marshmallows easily enough. I usually prefer to bring an item that everyone can eat, but the vegetarians and vegans are going to have to sit this one out.

A big part of Icelandic life is swimming in an outdoor pool or bathing in a hot tub. The town has both. On Sunday we saw a couple of families splashing around. Other days its been quiet when I’ve gone, but we’ve met several locals this way and have enjoyed the relaxation of the warm water while looking out over the harbour. For the more adventurous, there is an ice cold tub where people take a quick dip before returning to the hot tub. It makes your hands all tingly, but its not fun to dip in such cold water.

Day14: We’re off on a long trip across the north of the island. There are some very interesting places to visit. Now that we know the symbols posted along the road that look a square with a loop at each corner means there is a point of interest there, we stopped frequently along the way to see what was on offer. Our first stop was a winner with a cluster of sod houses dating back to the 1800s. They don’t look big on the outside, but there’s a bunch of below level floors which included a cooking room, a number of food storage panties, various dining and living areas, a bunch of bedrooms, a work room full of horse tack, and a variety of farming tools. They were very cool, with no fire on, but one can imagine how hot they might be when the fire was fully stoked.

The day was exceptionally sunny and clear so the photographs were stunning, and the sea so calm it reflected the mountains. When we arrived in the district where we had booked our guesthouse, we stopped to see some falls. Water is ubiquitous on Iceland, and rocks, so whenever the rocks and water happen together, you get falls. These were some of the most spectacular we had seen yet. After we stopped for dinner and set ourselves up at the guesthouse, we realized we still had light enough to explore the Lake Myvatn area.

This is one of the more active volcanic areas on the island. We hadn’t seen much steam and such yet, but here was a whole volcano with smelly sulfuric steam pouring out of its side. We stepped out of the car to check out the plain just below the volcano where there are boiling mud pots, boiling water pools and steam coming out of the ground or out of a stone pile. The whole place was coloured in shades of sienna and ochre.

Day 15: We took to the road again to visit Stuðlagil Canyon. I had seen photographs of the area that looked so wild and beautiful I really wanted to see it. We learned that we would have to walk 10 km if we wanted to see the canyon from the lower level, so we opted for a long drive on a bumpy road instead, and found a view site with stairs and a landing that hung out over the canyon. It was a grey day, so the photos lack something, but the rythms of the crystaline shapes of the rocks and their rusty colours were impressive from our vantage point.

On our return, we took a small detour so we could visit Dettifoss, Europe’s most powerful waterfall. Now, I live only a one and a half hour drive from the falls with the highest flow rate in North America, Niagara Falls, and I’ve been there many times, so its hard to impress me with falling water, but even though the falls in Iceland are somewhat less grand, they are surrounded by vast scenes of mountains and plains and are a wonder themselves. One thing that was very cool about this falls was a snow field just off to the side that had melted and refroze, mixing the black earth particles with the snow and forming swirling patterns.

I managed to locate a very nice restaurant in a hotel on our way back. A lot of places were not open yet. June is apparently the time to visit, not May, but we were careful to plan out our route and research for spots to eat before the day was over.

Day 16: We returned home by a slightly different route, trying our best to see as much of the north as possible. Iceland doesn’t have a lot of major routes, so there was some repetition.

Day 17: A sunny day. While we had planned to get back to our work, good weather tempted us back out to visit the last remaining penninsula in the region we hadn’t yet seen. We drove through the pass to get to the other side of the peninsula Skagastrond is on, then headed around the next one. We notice several block-shaped islands just off the coast, and several that had land bridges on them as well. The nicest spot we found was Siglufjörður, where a picturesque town in a cozy harbour was surrounded very closely by mountains. It was probably the cutest town we had encountered yet.

Day 19: Today was taken up entirely by a drive to the airport in Keflavik. The land looks quite different in the south, the mountains higher and further away, and the nearer plains were bumpy with rocks and shaggy grasses. It is warmer and sunnier than in the north. There was a spot on my way back north where the road climbed and the area filled with fog. Icelandic roads are not very wide, and there is virtually no shoulder nor many guard rails, so it was somewhat nerve-wracking to be able to see only a few meters ahead. I was focussed on driving back with the hopes of making it in time to enjoy a hot tub, but alas, it was not to be, and I don’t have any photos of that trip to share.

Day 20: I have another ten days to write in, and having touristed so much, I am ready to get down to work again. I find that fallow time is important to my creative process. I can’t make a schedule and stick to it, it just kills my artistic mojo, but when I’m not feeling the words coming to me, I find it better to take a break, and a driving tour of the most scenic place on earth is bound to get my mind back into writing gear. The trick is not to berate myself for not being productive. I can work fast when I’m in a flow state, and these things help me to get there. Today I mostly updated this blog since I was on the road for so many days, and met up with a new Icelandic friend who lives in the town.

Day 21: I’m working in the studio today with the few artists who have not already left. I always notice my energy increases when I’m working beside others. It may seem silly, after all, I don’t even need to be interacting with them to get this feeling, I just need to be working where there are others working. I know that this is my particular style, but others have totally different needs. Some need absolute quiet, others white noise, and others a soundtrack of music. Some prefer to be totally alone, and others like the bustle of a coffee shop. I used to often take to a coffee shop or library to write. I’d put in my ear buds and play some kind of instrumental music from Youtube. It created a kind of bubble for me. I could see activity but the earbuds cut out the outside noise.