Jean Barberis

How to build a paper boat

"There's no way in Hell" The Old Salt had spoken. He'd seen all types of ships in his time and he was adamant that what we set out to do was impossible. "There's no way you can make a seaworthy boat out of paper". He should know. After all, he was a seasoned shipwright who'd lost digits on boatyards from Borneo to Bangor and mastered the craft of boat-building over a lifetime. Who were we? A bunch of amateurs. An arts collective by the Name of Mare Liberum. A motley crew of seven artists, poets, and designers who had gathered at the Antique Boat Museum, in Northern New York State, right on the edge of the Saint Lawrence. We were far from Brooklyn, and it showed.