Testing the composition on a smaller scale, this work was another effort to capture that transformative moment when we go from being immersed in one element into another. There is something ancient in the connection we feel to this blue coolness, as we plunge into its healing depths.

Some enter into something new with trepidation, others just dive in with abandon. Transformation is something we each experience in our own way, and this painting celebrates those who take this journey slowly. Tom Morello puts it best when he advises "Take it easy, but take it."

This piece reflects the dichotomy of this time of global pandemic: when isolating at home we can have the conflicting feelings of being( (ideally) in a place of comfort and security, while also feeling a sense of despair and isolation. This painting can bring forth both of these reactions in viewers: either it is a quiet, womb-like realm or a suffocating, lonely realm.

While isolated during the Covid-19 pandemic, I found I was deeply missing the feeling of plunging into the healing, calm blue of our local pool. I'm an avid swimmer, and until it was forbidden to me, I didn't realize just how much I relied on this ritual: the complete transformation when I entered this quiet, shimmering world. It is an ancient feeling, womb-like and comforting, yet also feels new, like a purification of body and soul. I hoped to bring that feeling to others who might be missing that transformative, cooling calm of the water.

I was inspired to create this piece for myself, but it has sparked a collective craving during this time of anxiety and isolation. Rather than an image of emptiness, the painting creates a calm, comforting realm that so many of us are missing during this time. We all have childhood memories of descending into this silent otherworld: cool, quiet and soothing. It's somewhere we can float, detached from the cares of the world and let the shimmering, filtered sun paint us in light.

As I spent time isolated due to the global pandemic we are all experiencing, I found myself aching for the cool clean world beneath the surface of our local pool. I am an avid swimmer, and this shimmering blue world beckoned, with its promise of quiet and solace.
Having been born and raised in California, the aqua and sun-drenched works of David Hockney have long influenced my work. In the grey days of isolation and worry, I found it soothing and calming to paint in a style and subject matter evocative of this lighter, sunnier time. I hope these works create in the viewer a sense of diving into a calmer, quieter world.