swell o1
48” x 48” . |. S O L D | 2 0 2 0
Currently onsite in a public space at The Montage Laguna Beach, this wall installation is made of small disks of resin mixed with ink, mica dust, paint, and rubbing alcohol, collaged onto 4 layers of plexiglass and housed in a 48” x 48” custom-milled poplar and birch box frame. This piece was created during and inspired by the pandemic lockdown of 2020. During this time, like many coast dwellers looking for an escape, we found ourselves at the ocean. Without being permitted to stand or sit idle on the beach, we usually ended up in the surf… floating, wading, boogie boarding, swimming, and merely immersing. We’d go every few days and stay until dusk.
Normally one would get out after a bit but, having nowhere else to go, no beach games to play, no picnics to enjoy with friends, we’d stay… like buoys rolling and bobbing in the churning white tide, rising and falling with the lather, ebbing and flowing amidst the simmering formations of webbed sea suds, turning into prunes, spotting jellyfish, bat rays, and the occasional half-buried sand dollar, calmly drifting in the swells of this warm frothy blanket.
We were like a bunch of limp socks in the wash, eye level with the spume, spray, bubbles, and mist, as copper swirls of the ocean’s waves bloomed then dissolved into the sand with the back drop of a brilliant coral sun slowly sinking into the purple cool haze of twilight. So, this installation stands as homage to the copper sea at sunset, as it bubbles, churns, swirls, and swells, providing us all a most sacred refuge.
