become a whole. A lyric buoyancy emerges. Our consciousness fuses with our unconscious. The eye and the mind's eye become one." -Mayher, Bill. "An Eye for Boats, A Sense of Place: The Art of James Dodds." Wooden Boat Publication 2008. And in Dodd's world, as in ours, the water is always there. His landscapes, rather than showing a fish-eye view, show a sea's-eye view. Here mankind and its works are laid before us – frail, clever, tender, damaged, beautiful and trying to stay safely alive. His perspective shows us our home from the point of view of the outsider. We are perhaps seeing as a boatman would, or a Viking raider, a Wivenhoe smuggler, a war time mariner. We may be aloft at a masthead, we may be adrift in time. And we may be angels. Something about the work insists – we may be angels with salt on our wings. A L Kennedy, writer and broadcaster. References 1957 births Living people People from Brightlingsea People from Wivenhoe