At Sea

This morning I woke up with the sea on my mind. A memorial was held this week for the intrepid sailing couple from Seattle, Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle. They were killed by Somali pirates, an unthinkable and yet now-common occurrence in our new/old world in which any nightmarish thing you could dream of is probably happening right now.

I did this image several years ago in commemoration of the Indonesian tsunami. I have always loved the origami paper boat, and I did a series called  “Rescue” juxtaposing the fragility of  paper with the inexorable power of the sea. “At Sea” emerged with an unexpected martial feeling. The paper boat sits in puzzle piece lock-up with what could be the tail of a military transport plane. The foreground image may be in the act of rescue, or it may be on attack. And that is very much how the world feels to me this morning. The lock-up of war and peace is inextricable, relentless, eternal. We make our fragile boats, place them on the water, and head towards the light at the curve of the horizon, regardless of what happens next.