During 2024, I embarked on a project to create a simple, small-scale sketch for each of some 160 stanzas of Coleridge’s epic (long and tragic) poem: The Ancient Mariner.
The poem begins with the Ancient Mariner interrupting a wedding guest to tell his story - setting a tone of foreboding and moral reflection. His journey takes him from his home port to the desolate polar regions where he kills an albatross, traditionally seen as a good omen, leading to catastrophic consequences for him and his crew. The ship becomes becalmed, and cursed, and the crew members perish, one by one while the Mariner is condemned to live with the burden of his guilt.
A turning point is when he experiences a moment of reverence for the beauty of nature which allows him to seek forgiveness and ultimately find salvation. The poem’s culmination is when the Mariner returns home, transformed by his experiences, and with a compulsion to share his story - perhaps as a meditation on human relationships with the natural world.
