The Last Ship from the River of the Northern City

The fourth project of Two Ponds Press reflects an on-going collaboration between two longtime friends, renowned English musician Sting and American painter Stephen Hannock. In 2013, Sting released his eleventh studio album The Last Ship with songs written for a musical that premiered the following year. The musical was nominated for numerous awards, including two Tony Awards in 2015, for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations. The songs take inspiration from the closing of the shipyards in and around the historic shipbuilding town of Wallsend, where Sting grew up. Inspired by the lyrics, which mirrored themes he too had been exploring in his work, Hannock returned to his Baskin-informed roots to create the woodcuts that pair with Sting’s lyrics in Two Ponds’ The Last Ship, a portfolio that engages all the senses in its content, texture, color, and size.

When celebrated American painter Stephen Hannock attended Bowdoin College, he participated in the 12-College Exchange Program which found him at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in the 1970s, where he caught the eye of Leonard Baskin with whom he apprenticed for several years creating anatomical drawings, woodcuts, sculptures, and paintings. Hannock refers to his apprenticeship with Baskin as “the ultimate art school.”