Oil on Baltic Birch, 10” x 20” 2015 On Prince Edward Island during a road trip to Eastern Canada with my family, our car broke down in a small town. While it was being fixed we were stranded, so we decided to poke our heads into a quaint little chapel-turned-museum. Once inside, we were swept into a nautical dream world of the most charming antiques. I stood transfixed in front of the wooden box compass, and in that moment I knew this inspiring relic would find its way into one of my paintings. I thanked the curator for allowing me to freely take photos. For the environment, I envisioned an ethereal and enchanted mossy forest in the deep wood, an idea which came to me last summer while canoeing and portaging through Algonquin Park in Northern Ontario. During this off-grid adventure, I discovered how much we relied on our compass for navigation and how in-tune we became to knowing true north. It’s like that with our lives too, as we need to know our True North, and having a compass to navigate is crucial. Sometimes it’s not until we lose our bearings that we realize how important this is. While working on the painting, I enjoyed listening to The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, which inspired the title for the work and described the mystical feeling I wished to convey.