Balance

Under the Waves
I fell in love with the ocean’s rhythm and vastness before I can remember and it has become a part of me. Unfortunately, beneath the waves of the ocean great damage has been done by human materialism: overfishing, rising temperatures, deep water trawling among many manmade catastrophes. However we, as humans, depend upon many of the ocean’s resources as sources of life. This is why I went in search of the balance between our own needs and the oceans.

I made five prints that show the disintegration and then recovery of a kelp forest. I used the pattern of the kelp as a motif to show the state of balance throughout all five prints. The hand-colored aspect of these prints is a celebration of the beauty of the ocean, and brings more life to each print. The final print shows a scuba diver, which is representative of a fostered curiosity in the ocean that, in the end, could save it. I used printmaking to give my images grounding through the etched lines and a more ethereal quality in the aquatint that creates the background, which makes them both more interesting and more meaningful. My goal in making pieces about the ocean is
to both celebrate its beauty and create awareness of what is happening to it. I believe that fostering genuine interest in the ocean, using education as a key for unlocking ideas and actions, is the first step to finding balance.