Since 1981 I have cooked for geological crews in the Canadian Arctic and in more recent years volunteered as a navigator and geological assistant in Australia. In the Australian outback we spend weeks in the field. Camping every night in a different spot. By day driving, searching for dolerite outcrop and sampling rock. From dawn to dusk my job

is to navigate and spot appropriate outcrop.  I travel with several maps on my lap. 

I try to keep the geological and topographic maps clean, but with every passing day they absorb more of the country, as though trying to reconnect with their source.

The dirt-encrusted, threadbare fold lines, sweat and coffee stained surfaces, lightly pencilled notes and hand drawn roads, and holes caused from spreading the maps over rough ground, record my movements across the land. More