Patterns of Passage by John McCaskill  Image: Patterns of Passage is a visual meditation on movement, memory, and the coded language of navigation. At its center, three silhouetted paddles rise like guardians or markers, cutting through a field of meticulously carved and printed indigenous patterns. Each design block echoes the visual language of global wayfinding traditions — motifs that once adorned textiles, tools, and the bodies of those who crossed oceans by starlight and swell.

By layering paddle forms over this matrix of geometric rhythm, McCaskill weaves a narrative of physical motion and cultural continuity. The paddles, though still, imply action — the human stroke that turns pattern into progress, memory into momentum. As part of the artist’s ongoing exploration of waypoints and ancestral navigation, this work stands as a tribute to the enduring intelligence embedded in both design and journey.
Patterns of Passage is a visual meditation on movement, memory, and the coded language of navigation. At its center, three silhouetted paddles rise like guardians or markers, cutting through a field of meticulously carved and printed indigenous patterns. Each design block echoes the visual language of global wayfinding traditions — motifs that once adorned textiles, tools, and the bodies of those who crossed oceans by starlight and swell. By layering paddle forms over this matrix of geometric rhythm, McCaskill weaves a narrative of physical motion and cultural continuity. The paddles, though still, imply action — the human stroke that turns pattern into progress, memory into momentum. As part of the artist’s ongoing exploration of waypoints and ancestral navigation, this work stands as a tribute to the enduring intelligence embedded in both design and journey.