You could say that water is interwoven with my fate - I was 4 when I nearly drowned in the Pacific Ocean. The sand fell out from under me as I ran through emerald-green waters and slipped into a deep tidepool unseen. Laughter suddenly turning to cold silence, tinged with the flavor of salt. I remember calmly gazing up through the water to see my father looking around before he noticed me and plucked me out, shivering and coughing.

I have always been drawn to water and my bond with it was only just beginning all those years ago. The feeling of being at home underwater led me to become an avid diver, with over 20 years of diving experience and multiple certifications. This love has allowed me to explore parts of the natural world that many don’t get to see. The incredible beauty I’ve experienced inspired me to share the wonder I find in the world & to help inspire others to care for the places that are crucial to our survival. Part of my path is also bound to my history with trauma; my journey to heal, grow and learn. Nature, photography and painting have been critical to my story, allowing me to keep moving forward and giving me a safe place to make sense of my life. I have had to work hard over decades to grow and expand instead of shutting everything out as I learn how to connect with people. My desire to heal myself is enmeshed with my desire to help move towards creating a better future for all on this planet – perhaps if I can do better, we all can; perhaps if we all can heal, I can.

W A T E R

Get comfortable my friend, and let me share a story with you. This tale is filled with wonder, beauty, mystery, drama and … water.

W A T E R is everywhere – it is a building block of life and the catalyst to sustain it. It exists within the cells of every living creature; it is flowing through my beating heart as I write this – and yours. It connects us all, binds us, cleanses us, renews our spirits and quenches our thirst.

We begin with its apparent absence, whispering to us from the distant past. Its mark left on the land, carving out canyons over eons or perhaps cracking the soil of an ancient lake bed – its presence on the mountain tops as snow sparkling at the empty basin below – still here even when it seems long gone. This view hints to us of a time beyond time when the world was dry. Our imaginations are sparked to wonder what brought about this dynamic element. Was hydrogen and oxygen released from volcanic activity or did many chunks of intergalactic ice & rock crash into the planet bringing the necessary building blocks here?

The comet NEOWISE is a reminder of those primeval travelers through space, its reflection mirrored in a lake that might have been created in part by a closer and much more dramatic encounter with other ancient wanderers.

From the heavens we dive as rain into a stream, fed by the natural cycle that water travels. Cloud to rain to river to ocean to cloud...repeat. We see through the curious eyes of small Steelhead, swirling around an emerald eddy. They nourish themselves in shallow streams before the long and perilous journey west to the sea, hoping one day to return to this place and give their bodies back to the land that raised them.

As we swirl into the ocean and drift along the currents, we see the richness of life here. From the smallest plankton to the largest blue whale and each creature in-between. A school of fish at sunset fills us with awe, each tiny creature an individual, yet moving as one; flashing and twisting in the fading light.

We pause in the shallows over a Conch atop pieces of dead coral; beams of light pierce the water and fish swim by seemingly oblivious to the bleakly beautiful scene. Cycles of life and death play out again and again as the tides rise and fall.

Traveling further out the blue-greens of the water contrast against the magenta glow of fluorescing coral, speaking to the warm water temperatures while the stormy sky behind hints at the gathering of clouds and a coming rain. As our journey comes back to the beginning, we turn for a look as we float up to become the clouds in the sky.

The reef below sparkles and swirls with life, and a human-built fort seems to hover above it. We feel how deeply this highlights what we’ve seen in our travels, the interconnectedness of all things – we are the water; the water is us. This magical tale of a seemingly mundane substance that permeates and sustains our existence also inspires my paintings.

I am just starting to create a series of pieces highlighting the connection between worlds...between what’s below the surface and how it’s part of what’s above – what we all see every day.

Water is my place of refuge, where I go to heal – to drop all the expectations modern life lays on me – mend myself to the depths of my soul and fly. I can soar as light dances around me, being fully in the present moment. To me, water is not only a resource to be consumed – though I have to do so to survive. It is the place I am fully myself; part of nature – not separate from it. I know that how we move forward in the coming years directly impacts the quality of life for those who come after us. It is within our power to create not only a livable planet, but a healthy one; a place that is better than we found it.

The choice belongs to each of us.

All of this is kept in mind when I create my work; sustainability and ecological impact are key to me – I care about the impact my business has on the future and I create my works with the most environmentally friendly mediums, printing processes & packaging that I can find.