Artist Statement
For the last number of years, my work has focused on the ocean, driven by a desire to encourage conservation and deepen our connection to the natural world. This series began after living in Hawaii for six months, where I experienced both the profound joy of immersing myself in the ocean’s beauty and the sorrow of witnessing the damage to coral reefs and marine life—fragile ecosystems that often go unseen or overlooked beneath the water’s surface.
Recent years have been a time of reckoning and regrouping, fueling my need to seek refuge from the traumas we all face—pandemic, global warming, social injustice, political turmoil. Where do we turn for peace? I return to the seashore, a threshold between worlds, where the tangible meets the ephemeral, and where we can witness the ever-changing dance of wind, tide, and light. The ocean’s rhythms, both seen and unseen, reflect the fleeting nature of our own experiences, offering a space for renewal and introspection.
This, along with my ongoing meditation practice and exploration of portraiture, has led me to integrate figurative work into a series centered on life at the water’s edge. Here, I focus on the quiet joy that emerges when people surrender to the present moment—allowing their daily concerns to dissolve like footprints in the sand. The seashore is a place of reset, where we can rediscover a sense of belonging within nature, if only for a passing moment.
Perhaps art offers alternative ways of mapping reality—revealing the invisible, shaping the subconscious, and influencing our future. My hope is that these paintings invite viewers to attune themselves to the unnoticed, impermanent, and wondrous aspects of nature, cultivating a deeper presence in the world and a renewed commitment to honoring all life on this planet.