How Things Work Underwater is a painterly dive into an imaginary watery world (think Philip Guston and Jacques Cousteau sharing a picnic on the ocean floor). They are partly influenced by the beautiful yet eerie underwater footage in Werner Herzog’s documentary “Encounters at the End of the World” and partly by my attempt to create paintings using theatrical paints (an acrylic vinyl medium - different from my usual oils) which comes in gallon pails instead of tubes. The resulting images are my “made up” world of life beneath the waves. And although I allowed my whimsy free reign, can anything compare to the bizarre beauty of a seahorse?

Mongiat, 2009