ARTIST STATEMENT

I approach my artwork from two perspectives, one from a fascination with the beauty of underwater life, and one in regard to the issues of destruction caused by ocean exploitation in the form of pollution, over-fishing, and devastating fishing practices. By visually interpreting some of the internal environments of the ocean, I connect the the external world through the action of creating art and generating visual images symbolic of life in the ocean. My struggle is that these two perspectives, beauty and destruction, have become murky like polluted water, becoming compromised and hybridized. At times I lose my clarity of distinguishing between nature and man’s refuse. It all seems to merge into a form of polluted beauty.

The ocean ebbs and flows with compelling life forms and man-made debris that simultaneously create destruction and sustaining qualities. I am conflicted in my discernment between the pollution that repels me and the pleasing aesthetic transformation that happens to some debris in the ocean. It is disturbing and regrettable that our vision of the ocean must now factor in human’s effect on the oceans—our intentions, our needs, and our waste. It is impossible for people to continue believing that the ocean’s power of retraction can digest all this garbage and abuse.

By exploiting the ocean, we leave behind an altered view of our beaches and oceans. Will it permanently take the place of the original? Is the natural, pristine beach of my childhood gone forever? Has the displacement of garbage become the new polluted beauty of the ocean?

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Most importantly, are we going to accept this? It is to these questions and ideas that I direct my work. The collection of objects in this installation are generated from this duality of the natural and polluted beauty of our oceans.