St Piran, Cornwall’s Patron Saint was conceived as his mother ate a star. This steel star was made in an effort to create a solid artefact of this event. It is pictured here at Hedrh Falls, during a pilgrimage to Wales (the falls are rumored to be close to the birthplace of St Patrick). This project allowed me to explore how finding a personal faith alters our relationship to the landscape. Celtic Christianity crosses through the Celtic nations, and is manifested in part through the stories of its saints.
Celtic Christianity (an Insular Christianity that was adopted originally by Ireland in the 4th century) sits apart from mainstream Christianity due to its Celtic and Pagan influence. In Christianity, humans are placed in relation to God, and to Christ, with little attention paid to the natural world in which they exist. This differs to the core values of Celtic Christianity, that emphasise the importance of balance between man and land.

This dualism is reflected in the stories of the Celtic Saints that emphasise kinship and respect to animals. They present stories of interconnectivity with, and gratitude for the land. Standing in the Cornish landscape today, I am immersed in these co-existing cultures: stone circles and churches; crosses chiseled out of granite monoliths. My interest in megalithic remains and places of concentrated heritage has given me a greater understanding of how landscape feeds into faith and faith into landscape, both locally and on a personal level. It has taught me how to implement the meditative and theological in my own personal relationship to the natural world that surrounds me.