scuba sketches
Oil pastel drawing on vellum, 11 x 11 inches. Ongoing series.
Whenever possible, I rig up a waterproof drawing board to make drawings while snorkeling. With a set of snorkels, goggles, and fins I bring a vellum drawing pad and oil pastels into the sea with me. I allow the ocean tides to carry my body as I simultaneously draw. The image results in a line drawing that is similar to a blind contour. My observations amass over time as I swim and as a result the image became a layered tangle of gestural black lines. There is a rough sensibility to the sketches because the imagery somewhat resembles the textures of the ocean floor: the corals, algae, fish, sand, and rocks, yet there is no sense of naturalistic space. A peaceful as the experience is, haptic and rushed is the result because I force accumulated time into one moment. In this series I give into inaccuracy through process.
