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.

Colorado Mountain College

A big thank you to all who came to the CMC theatre and the following book signing to hear my presentation on Friday evening. It was a great night with around 200 people in attendance and the
proceeds donated to the Summit Foundation of Colorado.

Special thanks to Jennifer at the Summit Foundation and Debbie at CMC for all their help and attention to detail. Also thanks to my wife Kirsty who always makes sure things run well and never misses a beat. Thanks to all of you.

We love Summit County and the great environment here in the mountains. Thanks to groups like the Summit Foundation, life is better for everyone who lives here and visits the Rockies...

Speaking at Colorado Mountain College March 9

Join me at the Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge, CO, on Friday evening, March 9th for a very special fund-raising event for the Summit Foundation.

The presentation begins at 7 pm and will run about one hour with a short Q&A session after. A dessert reception and a chance for more personal time to chat and ask questions will follow, along with a book signing of “One Island, One Ocean”. Tickets to the presentation are $10 and to attend both the presentation and reception with David are $20. Proceeds benefit The Summit Foundation and Colorado Mountain College. We hope to see you there! 

Please visit the Summit Foundation website for details on their wonderful organization and how you can contribute- http://www.summitfoundation.org/

One Island, One Ocean Book is Available!

I am happy to announce the publication of the new book on our expedition Around the Americas is now available to purchase. Titled "One Island, One Ocean" this beautiful photo book chronicles the entire 28,000 mile environmental adventure. Written by veteran Cruising World editor Herb McCormick with a forward by philanthropist David Rockefeller, the book contains over 350 images of the voyage by yours truly. I am very excited to have the book available at Blue Water Studios, local bookstores, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Published by Weldon Owen in San Francisco and distributed by
Simon & Schuster.

*Note- I am currently in the Rockies through March, but will have copies at the studio to personally sign and share April-October 2012.

Pearson Lakes Art Center Exhibit

What a great run for the exhibit (May 5 - July 5, 2011) at the Pearson LAC! We had huge attendance for the duration of the One Island One Ocean show. Roughly 200 people attended my presentation in the Lauridsen Performing Arts Theatre for a very interesting and personal account of the Around the Americas adventure.

Thank you Danielle and everyone and the PLAC for making the exhibit a huge success.
*Please contact Danielle at the Pearson Lakes Art Center for booking information- 712-332-7013.

New exhibit at Algona, IA

I am excited to announce a new exhibit that I have unveiled in Algona, Iowa (yes my home town). The exhibit was funded through a grant from the Stinson Prairie Arts Council. This interactive exhibit represents the story of the 2009-10 voyage of the 64-foot sailing vessel, Ocean Watch, on her 28,000 mile expedition to circumnavigate the N/S American continents.

The exhibit features 24 large format images with 15-30x40 inch informational "magazine" panels which tell the story of adventure, science and education with ocean and sea awareness as the key features.

The exhibit also includes examples of plastics use and disposal including a continuous string of 220 plastic bottles which represent one person's yearly use. Also included is a plastic shopping bag exhibit used to illustrate the effects of these bags being disposed of in the seas and oceans.

The exhibit finishes its run in Algona on Jan. 21st and will come back to Okoboji. We are working on booking at the Pearson Lakes Art Center this summer along with speaking engagements. The exhibit is available for traveling. Please contact Blue Water Studios for details.

Speaking at Iowa State Historical Society

I will be speaking Thursday evening (7 PM), April 30th, at the Iowa State Historical Society building in Des Moines in conjunction with the "official" opening of the 20/20 exhibit. There will be wine and refreshments, a powerpoint and premier of the documentary, "An Arctic Journey in a Changing World," followed by a brief Q & A. I will sell and sign a few books also if you are so interested. Should be a fun evening.

Opening at the State Historical Society of Iowa

20/20 has opened in Des Moines. The exhibit will run into September of 2009. It is a great venue with lots of linear wall space to let it all flow. We are planning an official opening night reception on April 30th. Stay tuned for details or please visit the State Historical Society website at right. Thanks. David

Schedule Notes

20 Years/20 Stories is exhibiting at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, Iowa, for the winter. The spring schedule is now taking shape as the exhibit opens at the Iowa State Historical Society in mid-March 2009, running through September. There is much more to the exhibit now also with new additions to the Northwest Passage and climate change sections.

This exhibit will then be available to travel the United States beginning October 2009.
See the Pearson Lakes Art Center for booking.

Autumn/Winter Venues

20/20 is currently back at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji after a great summer run. The fall venues are changing as the floods in eastern Iowa have closed some of our state's best art resources, including the closing of the University of Iowa's Museum of Art for the entire year. We are trying for a great Des Moines venue this late autumn to coincide with the premier of the new Iowa Public Television documentary in December. I will keep you posted when we get the date and place secured. Stay tuned.

Exhibit in Waterloo and Moving to Sioux City

The gallery talk in Waterloo was wonderful on May 15. Thank you all who came to and sponsored the event. The questions were great and challenged me as always.

20/20 wraps up at the Waterloo Center for the Arts the end of May and then moves across the state to open at the Sioux City Public Museum on June 14, where it will be until the end of August. I will speak in Sioux City on Sunday, June 29, 2 PM. Hope to see you there in western Iowa.

20/20 Opening in Waterloo, Iowa

The exhibit, "20 Years, 20 Stories" is opening at the Waterloo Center for the Arts April 3 and will be there until the end of May. The Waterloo center is a beautiful facility and it will be a terrific venue for the show. I have added a new section and the final chapter encompassing the travels through the Northwest Passage during the summer of 2007. We have stories on the ipods, big screens to show video, 200 images and lots to read. Can't wait to see you there for the opening and also the gallery talk on May 15th. Should be a great showing!

The exhibit, book and film traveling in 2008

2007 was an amazing year to say the least. My exhibit began it's first year of travels and I sailed through the Northwest Passage and into the history books. So what now? Well, work, lots of it.

The emphasis of 2008 will be my traveling exhibit, "Twenty Years, Twenty Stories." This exhibit is my attempt at a modern-day storytelling project. The exhibit combines journal entries, photography, ipods, and film to weave together 20 years of travel around the planet and what it really means in the end. Working in partnership with the beautiful Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, Iowa, we opened the exhibit (June 2007) and recently received a grant from the Iowa State Humanities board to travel the exhibit in Iowa for the next two years. I am finishing a companion book due out this spring.

20/20 is also available to travel to galleries, universities, museums, etc, beyond Iowa. With it's adventure travel, human rights, and climate change themes, there is something here for everyone. The climate change issue is the key ending story in the exhibit and the topic which I most enjoy discussing with audiences. Hopefully we will visit at a venue near you!



It has taken well over a year to put together, but the first retrospective exhibit of my 22 years of photography is now complete and finished it's first run at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, Iowa, July, 2007. We had over 400 people there for the opening night and it became the most viewed exhibit ever at the LAC. The interactive exhibit, which includes photography, journal entries, and ipod stories, weaves together a series of adventures, forming a larger storyboard of life, travels, and challenging issues. Look for the exhibit traveling around Iowa through 2008-2009. Schedules will be available through the Lakes Art Center. Use the link on the website. Thanks to everyone who has helped with this amazing project.