Just as it proved nearly impossible to fit both me and this monument into the frame, so it is equally difficult to put into words the experiences of the past couple of months - so I won't even try! Although I have spent my time at La Coupole researching the Second World War as part of the Art of Remembrance project, I spent my last day visiting sites from World War One, in the company of two expert guides. In 2009, I completed a set of drawings called The Memorial Series - 36 ink drawings on graph paper of war memorials, mainly in France. One of the drawings showed the Vimy Ridge Memorial (above) and it was done from photographs. I never thought I would get the chance to see it in person. Now I have and the experience was very powerful. The landscape in which it sits is covered in shell holes and craters, now covered in grass, but still reminiscent of a painting by Paul Nash. There is nothing stranger than dreams and mine are as strange as the next person's but visiting Vimy Ridge was a dream come true for me. It might have taken some sixteen years before it happened but it was worth the wait. The lesson for me in all of the above is to keep dreaming and to not put a timeline against it. As I prepare to travel back to Belfast, I know that this memorial and the memories of visiting it, will stay with me for a long time to come.
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