While we continue down the path of a technological revolution, shrouded by a digital world, the forces of nature and the beasts that kill continue to be subjects of our dramatics. The further we appear to distance ourselves from the natural environment, the more we are drawn to it, the more we find the necessity to protect it, the more concerns we find for it, the more we understand that its destruction means our own.
The mystery of the ocean and its creatures has inspired the human spirit since ancient times. Sharks, like other marine giants, have been symbols of death and fear, indestructible creatures representative of an infinite oceanic expanse. In current times, however, we have discovered that even sharks are vulnerable, the ocean has limited resources, and the network of human existence connects beyond the contacts on our phones and computers into all physical realms of the planet.
Beyond the environmental references of this painting are that of our own struggles, a metaphor for the conflicts each of us encounter, impenetrable forces, violence, captivity, the unknown, and how we respond, like the tides, in a fall or rise.
Leviathan, oil, acrylic, canvas, 2015.