Peter Ralston says that “Allen and Benner Islands are Betsy’s ‘other man'”, and such words caught my eyes when I first read through this piece of work. Of course, I understand what Ralston is trying to tell us: Betsy is so passionate about the Islands that they are almost as important as her husband for her. But I do doubt that for a woman with such a strong willing and clear vision to create her own world on such a feral territory, is it an appropriate comparison?
In the Iconography and Landscape, Daniels and Cosgrove define landscape as “a pictorial way of representing, structuring or symbolizing surroundings. ” Betsy is definitely constructing a landscape under this definition. She put her home on the island, making the unoccupied island that is 6 miles away from the coast into her “ultimate refuge.” She reconstructed the sail loft on the island to make it serve as a museum that displays the history of fishing in this area. She is turning the island from a “space” to a “place” following her own wills. Her husband Andy is painting with brushes and watercolors, while she is “painting” with buildings on this landscape. They are working in concert and creating harmony and is in no way being disturbed by her passion toward the island. In fact, they both love this place. That’s why I believe that “other man” is a highly improperiate expression.