New Beginnings

The Story Behind The Artwork

New Beginnings is inspired by the vessel at the heart of one of the most remarkable sea journeys in history. In September 1620, the Mayflower left Plymouth carrying more than one hundred passengers and crew towards an uncertain future across the Atlantic. The ship itself was relatively small by modern standards, yet she carried people whose decision to make that crossing would become part of a story remembered for more than four hundred years.

Mike Hicks has chosen to make the ship itself the focus of this artwork. Rather than concentrating on the people, the destination or the events that followed the voyage, Pilgrim Ship looks at the vessel that connected them all.

• A ship.
• A journey.
• And an ocean separating everything they knew from everything that lay ahead.

The Mayflower was not designed as a symbol of exploration or destined to become one of the most recognisable ships in history. She was a working sailing vessel, built for the demands of the sea. Yet in 1620 she became something much more significant. She became the means by which a group of people crossed an ocean towards a place they had never seen.

That contrast is central to the artwork. The ship may appear familiar to us now because of the story surrounding her, but for the people aboard her in 1620 she was their shelter, their means of transport and their only connection with the world they were leaving behind. For weeks, the Atlantic stretched around them. There were no engines, no modern navigation systems and no certainty about what conditions the next day would bring. The ship depended upon wind, weather, sails, navigation and the experience of those responsible for keeping her moving in the right direction.

New Beginnings is therefore not simply an image of a historic vessel. It is an interpretation of the responsibility placed upon that small ship and the people who depended upon her.

The Ship At The Centre Of The Story

The Mayflower is often remembered because of where she went and who travelled aboard her. But without the ship, there would have been no voyage.

That simple idea is what Mike wanted to explore. The vessel becomes the central character within the composition. Her sails, rigging and hull represent the physical reality of the journey, while the surrounding nautical elements reflect the uncertainty of crossing the Atlantic in the seventeenth century. A ship at sea can appear incredibly small against the scale of the ocean. For the passengers and crew aboard the Mayflower, that was their reality. There was no quick route home and no alternative means of continuing the journey. Once Plymouth disappeared behind them, the ship became their world.

The artwork captures that sense of isolation and dependence. The Mayflower is moving forward, but everything around her reinforces just how vast the journey really was.

Plymouth And The Voyage Of 1620

For Mike Hicks, creating this artwork from Plymouth gives the story an immediate connection with the present.

Plymouth was one of the final places the Mayflower visited before beginning her Atlantic crossing. The city, its harbour and the sea beyond remain closely connected with the story more than four hundred years later. From Plymouth, the voyage became a journey into open water. The familiar coastline disappeared and the Atlantic became the landscape through which the ship had to navigate.

That connection between place and history is an important part of Pilgrim Ship. The artwork is not intended simply to recreate a ship from the past. It is about imagining the experience of seeing that vessel leave Plymouth and knowing that, for those aboard her, there was a very long ocean between them and their destination. Today we can look back knowing how significant the voyage became. Those aboard the Mayflower could not.

They simply had a ship, a destination and a vast Atlantic ahead of them.

A Ship, A Journey, A Story

New Beginnings is ultimately about the vessel that carried a group of people into the unknown. The ship represents movement, determination and uncertainty. Her sails represent the wind that carried her forward. Her course represents the decisions made by those responsible for navigating her. And the ocean represents the enormous distance between Plymouth and the new world that lay beyond it.

More than four hundred years later, the Mayflower has become far more than a ship. She has become a symbol of journeys that begin before we know how they will end. Mike Hicks has used that idea to create a piece of artwork that looks beyond the familiar historical image and towards the human reality behind it. A small wooden ship. A vast ocean. And a journey that changed history.

Artwork Details

Title: New Beginnings
Artist: Mike Hicks — Spike the Art
Location: Plymouth, Devon, England
Theme: The Mayflower • The Pilgrims • 1620 • Maritime History • Exploration • The Atlantic Voyage
Edition: Limited edition of 500
Authentication: Individually serialised and registered through WooSerialiZe