Hand on Guard was drawn from a production still shot during the making of my film The Sea Calls Us Home. The still depicts a pirate standing with her hand resting on the guard of her sword. Here the protagonist is a fictional character who carries with her a loose narrative, a lone figure who wakes to find herself at the boundary of land and sea and longs to return to where the sea meets the sky.

In Hand on Guard, the image of the ship first appears in my work.