Conversations with Stone

Created for Conversations with Stone at Newcastle Cathedral, this work comprises two large-scale drawings based on geological thin-section slides of the stone used in the cathedral's construction. Thin sections are microscopic slices of rock that reveal mineral structures, textures and geological histories invisible to the naked eye.

Working from these magnified images, I translated the stone's internal structure into drawings using ink, charcoal and pastel. Enlarging the microscopic to the scale of the body invites viewers to move between geological deep time and the lived experience of the cathedral as a place.

Rather than depicting the cathedral as architecture, the drawings attend to the material from which it is made. They ask viewers to consider the building not simply as a cultural monument, but as transformed geology, stone carrying histories of formation, extraction, construction and endurance.

By shifting attention from the building to its material origins, the work continues my interest in slowing down how we encounter stone, inviting closer attention to the geological presences that shape both landscape and the places we inhabit.