Drowning in Blue
36"X48"
Framed Encaustic on panel
Available from the artist

Drowning in Blue came from my first real journey to
understand the South Pacific. I traveled to the Island
Kingdom of Tonga with my eldest son Brandon. Two
and a half hours east of Fiji by plane. We stayed in a
little fale, that sat out over the water in a little
village at the end of the road, Viamalo. We swam
with whales, ate native foods. We spent our time
learning, snorkeling, immersed in the customs, daily
lives and hardships of the people living in our local
village. There's no natural source of fresh water on
some of these islands. It's mostly purified gray
water. Yet, there we were, listening to the water
beneath us, with care not to underestimate a large
storm or over-eager tide.

I'd never felt the color of water the way I did there. It
was immense (literally), overwhelming. I came away
with my whole person, every bit of my being filled
with the colors, sounds, smells and tastes of our
enormous blue oceans. My trip to Tonga profoundly
changed how I look at art, at color and the risks I'm
willing to take to produce work that expresses how
beautiful and overwhelming our world is. This
painting helps me to remember what it's like to bob
around like a little cork in a wide and deep blue
ocean with a humpback whale turning over beneath
you before she flips out of the water with a wink and
a wave.