Summer dives

A detail from a study in adaptation. Recovered golf balls, urchin core, plaster on panel.

I know some of you may be thinking, "enough with the golf balls already." But I once again I spent a few days of my summer free diving for golf balls. How is that possible you may be wondering? It entertains me, what can I say. It is something that I cannot get out of my system. Something that I feel like I have yet to fully explore. So it remains there, hovering within me. I cannot say that it is simply the worn patina that the ocean currents have carved into their surface. I think that is part of their simple magic, but a fair amount of the allure impacted me one heat exhausted day in 2006.

One afternoon I discovered that the purple-black vanna (urchin) that inhabit the reefs of Hawaii can also survive in the rather toxic runoff zone near the hotel resorts. It is an otherwise barren wasteland of overheated water where little can survive, aside from the vanna (urchin) and garden eels (Moray.) The lava creates an undersea wonderland for eels who need a den. I discovered that there is a borrowing urchin that can be pinkish or purple (sorry cannot recall the species) that makes it's own borrow den in the lava rock at the bottom of the ocean. Where it got interesting was when I observed the urchin using a golf ball as a den door. It actually had poked its spines into the ball and then kept it as a shield on its back. When it went into it's borrow...it simply closed the door behind itself. Now for me, I found that to be an ideal adaptation to a compromised habitat.

So now, I keep rethinking and reinventing ways to incorporate this into my art. A new exploration uses a conch shell and the golf balls become barnacle like. I have to say it is striking with a nice balance of texture and shapes. Time will tell.