Deep Water: Fossils in the Book of Shadows

Recent work is somewhat limited by the supply chain issue: I'm not able to get indanthrone blue or anthraquinone blue in acrylics as inexpensively as I used to. Last year I started a series on Hanji (Korean mulberry paper I'd purchased in Seoul, Gwangju and Jeju) and been nervous about going on, though I really like the transparency and redness of this pigment series. Here's some of the work so far. They draw from images of fossil diatoms and crinoids, and evoke the profound changes to our oceans and bodies of water with climate change as species migrate from warmer waters, seeking comfort and good sources in order to thrive.

I'm titling these from deep water and storm imagery of Shakespeare's The Tempest. This work has long intrigued me since I saw a television production in black and white as a child, and wrote about its political conflicts as a student. At the beginning of the play, there are violent winds and rain, causing a shipwreck: sailors and aristocratic passengers are dispersed about an island, assuming their mates are lost. Soon, a wizard and his magical servant appear, and it is evident this wizard has caused this storm specifically to capture and control these mariners, as he has tried to control the island's indigenous inhabitants. Numerous issues and themes ensue: legitimate succession, colonialism, governance, secret studies, labor relations, inheritance, game play, and the messy business of reconciliation. Hope that these will have more companions soon.