Underwater
2024
Water
In alchemy there is a dictum about the transformative power of water and fire, “Wash it in fire and burn it in water.”
Both in alchemy and in storytelling water and fire are related processes of initiation. In water we descend. In water stories we endure.
Water wears things down – and that can take a very long time – and so by exploring water we are also exploring endurance, resilience, and an essential life force that is called “the water of life.”
“WASH IT IN FIRE AND BURN IT IN WATER”
What sticks to us?
That’s a question I asked when I started painting these birds, half in and half out of the contaminated water where there is only a slim barrier between two different states of being – being out and being in.
While that threshold is permeable it is also very fragile and easily contaminated. In these paintings, birds navigate in waters permeated with crude oils. How they navigate becomes as important as where they navigate
This painting is called “War on Our Doorsteps #4” and it is drawn and painted in the style of early wet plate photography. There is a shallow depth of field and only a small part of the overall image is in focus, the rest of the image is captured in a blur.
