~PRELUDE~
 

Prelude - For every wave is an individual, and the ocean our society.

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As if awakening suddenly from slumber, we are thrust into a world of mystery and intrigue. With a child-like mind we follow the beckoning of the waves, allured by their sound and presence; the ocean’s infinite hues are an endless playground for our imagination. Like most beginnings that come before the dawning of dread, we are excited, thrilled with ideas of the unknown wonder awaiting us. Overstimulated, we follow and act upon our curiosities, never thinking ahead nor behind. Our experiences are but a sliver of a moment in the great cataclysm of events that shaped the few waves that come into our view, beckon to us, wash over us, and form us. Our vessels and minds are classically pure, but stone-like. For a time, we will believe our wants are their wants, their loves are our loves, and that every feeling that emerges from within us—passion, loneliness, happiness, despair—are truly ours and not the product of our only influences: the waves. 

We do not observe the looming dichotomy distracting us from the realization that our quickly-forming identity is equal parts self and collective; That we are ourselves a wave, but the waves are also us.

So was I, when creating this painting back in 2020, ‘more husk than human’. The prelude of this journey was painted mostly under the influence of the artists and creators that I had allowed to teach me. Still unable to express myself authentically, I held my breath and took the deepest plunge I could into the designs that were insisting that I give them life. I disregarded my intuition that I was compromised by the same artifice that has beset my protagonist in “Prelude”. Thinking we were understood, we rested together in our flesh, under a calcifying skin.