Back to McMurdo

Yesterday I flew back to McMurdo for the first time in six weeks. “Town” looked a little different–the light was low, slanting and orange. The air felt colder. Hardly anyone was around. The population of town is around two hundred, most of whom will stay through the winter. In some ways it was just the same–snow and dirt being blown around in the wind, buildings and machines operating noisily, conversations about the weekend’s upcoming activities and parties. Wednesday is cookie day in the galley and everyone was talking about it. Across the Sound and above the nearly permanent “marine layer” of clouds, the Royal Society Range was illuminated golden or rose.

I had a hard time sleeping last night, despite feeling totally exhausted and going to bed around 8:30. Using a real shower, a flush toilet, and sleeping in a bed felt new and different, but it surely will not take long to readjust. My office in the Crary Lab-the main research lab in McMurdo–will also be my default studio space for the time being. I’ll be making some preliminary paintings in the remaining two weeks, or until I run out of the small store of supplies I brought to the ice.

Emotionally the transition is a litte more strange. While in the field, working, eating, and sleeping by six or so people on any given day, I often longed for personal space. In the valley where you knew you were only six of twelve people for at least a hundred miles, the mental space from one building to the next, or one tent to the next, felt much closer. Now that we’ve re-entered a larger community, I found myself feeling a little lonely, even if seperated from the others by just a wall or building, as our daily tasks and habits are rearranged without each other.