Over The Horizon is Officially Launched- davidthoreson.com

One Island One Ocean is officially sold out and out of print although one can still find a few copies of the book floating about. This couple years has been a very interesting time in life. I have transitioned from an exploring sailor into a professional speaker and lecturer. I am enjoying a new role of sharing my stories of exploration of the earth's edges, leading to my confirmation and discovery of a fast-paced changing climate. Not that I am enjoying the fact we are changing the earth's environment and that we have entered the Anthropocene, the Age of Man, but it is a very exciting time to be alive. Since we now live in this time it makes sense to launch a very ambitious book project, "Over the Horizon: Exploring the Edges of a Changing Planet."

At the age of 55 I am not getting any younger. I have many stories and over 150,000 photographs of planet earth. This project will force me to weed out the trivial and compose an autobiographical book of photos and stories that I hope can have an impact and leave a mark.

Thanks to my team. We are making it happen. Moving forward into a new era is very exciting...

Breaking News, March 1, 2016, the book is now officially launched!! You can pre-order the book here with a special offering. The book will physically ship late autumn for perfect holiday season delivery. Thank you all very much. It's an honor to be able to share my story with you. Cheers!
www.davidthoreson.com

Project Art at the University of Iowa

My latest exhibit is on display through April 21st at the University of Iowa's Hospital and Clinics Gallery III in Iowa City. If you are in the area (and hopefully not sick) please stop by for a visit. The Galleries of Project Art are some of the most visited anywhere in the US as you can expect. There is a captive audience looking for positive distractions from loved ones being at the clinics for medical reasons. What a brilliant idea for a series of gallery placements!

The U of I will give tours, tell my story and the story of other artists on display there also. Really fun, really great! Thank you to the U of I and their great staff for making this happen.
More information can be found here- Project Art

The Northwest Passage and Oceans Beyond

My new exhibit is open for viewing at the University of Iowa's Keyes Gallery in the Old Capitol on the U of I campus. Thanks to Shalla and her great staff there for helping during an extremely challenging weather week to get things all up and running. Thank you to my many financial sponsors who made this exhibit fiscally possible and will allow me to come back for the week in April. We had a great turnout on Thursday night, January 23rd for the opening in fitting Arctic weather. Here is how the exhibit looks and I will post more images soon:

The exhibit will be showing through the end of May. I will be back in Iowa City the week of April 21-25 to speak in many schools, Prairie Lights Bookstore, the Iowa Children's Museum and a presentation at the University of Iowa at 6 pm on Thursday, April 24th. I will post all this in detail soon as my schedule is finalized.

Here are some links to the exhibit and press surrounding the opening. Please come and take a look at the exhibit if you are in or near the Iowa City area:

http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20140127/NEWS01/301270006/Sailing-into-history?Frontpage

Not Cold Enough? More Press-Citizen

The Daily Iowan

I also wish to give a very special thanks to two very dear old family friends, Barbara Nicknish for her help in Iowa City with so many things and my host in town Virginia Bremner. Could not have done it with out you.

Thank you also to my great friend and designer, Tom Wallace, who helped me design the beautiful info panels. And, of course, my wife Kirsty who helps me with all things in life...

New Exhibit Opening Jan 23 at the University of Iowa

Welcome to 2014! I am opening my new exhibit at the University of Iowa's Old Capitol Museum of Natural History on Thursday night, January 23, 5-7 pm. It is titled:

The Northwest Passage and Oceans Beyond: 
An Iowan Sails Into History

It is a perfect venue (below) and should be a wonderful time in the greater Iowa City community.

The Old Capitol Museum has been doing a series on Arctic history and exploration including many University of Iowa connections. I am proud to be part of the series. My exhibit will include many of the elements from the One Island One Ocean exhibit combined with the two other voyages to the Arctic and the Northwest Passage in 1994 and 2007. We will have ipads featuring my blog through the passage in 2007 with images from the time as featured in the Wall Street Journal. 

I will also be speaking in Iowa City at many schools and venues during late April. If you are interested in scheduling an event, please contact me at the email below:

bluewatersouth@gmail.com

Thanks to the many people in Iowa City who have been coordinating events, especially Shalla Ashworth, Director of Operations and dear friend Barbara Nicknish who has been helping with private sponsorships for the exhibit acquisition.

Humanities Iowa Speaking and Traveling Exhibit

My speaking engagements have been going great and whether at the Vail Symposium or my involvement traveling around Iowa through the Humanities Iowa speaking program (part of the National Endowment for the Humanities), I am really enjoying getting out and telling my story of being a witness to great change on this planet.

I also have my "One Island One Ocean" exhibit that is available for showing for anyone interested. This is an interactive exhibit about our 28,000 mile sailing voyage around the N/S American continents. Photographs, video and story-telling.  Next booked exhibit begins January 2014 at the University of Iowa as part of a larger Arctic exploration exhibit at the university galleries.

Summer is fast approaching and it will be very busy at my gallery and studio but please keep me in mind if you are interested in a keynote speaker for your group, large or small. I am currently speaking about the "new" Northwest Passage, you know, the ice-free one that small boats are zipping through every summer now. I tell the history of the exploration of the passage and of my three attempts to transit this infamous body of pack ice and water.

It is a crazy time we live in. There are many climate change "deniers" out there even though we have now hit 400 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere and lost half of the north polar ice cap in the past 35 years. There are 7 billion people on the planet, with 5 billion of those living within 100 miles of the ocean putting tremendous stress on our water resources of all types and threatening more disasters with this concentration of life so close to the waters edge.

We'll explore our world through my adventures on these edges of civilization. Please book me for an event soon. Thanks, David

New Book Project in the Works

One Island One Ocean has been an amazing project but now a little more than one year out, the project is ramping down. I am in the process of beginning a new and interactive e-book project that will involve my 20 years of polar sailing and exploring the planet, early years, 10,000 miles bike journey, videos, stills and story-telling in a 21st century presentation. This will be a major challenge but before I begin the "what's next" phase of my adventures, it is time to compile some of my best work over the years. Oh boy, here we go...

Iowa Lakeside Laboratory

Thank you to Jane Shuttleworth and everyone at the lab that made the spring Earth Day celebration and my presentation a very successful evening. We had a sold-out crowd and very good questions as I would always expect.

And thank you, Friends of Lakeside Lab for inviting me to speak at the big top Chautauqua celebration and fundraiser for the lab June 17th. It was a great and windy evening with wonderful stories and interesting discoveries of days gone by at the lakes and the importance of the lab to the area, state of Iowa and the world with its renowned diatom lab.