Black Ocean #2
acrylic on masonite

In the depths of the Black Ocean, there are creatures of all manner of horrific appearance. The merwoman takes the man down to the deep to show him what awaits should he venture down too far. As a particularly cruel-looking eel-dragon-thing looms above him, the man nearly panics, but the woman holds him, keeping her loving calm. For she knows that if they remain calm and leave the creature alone, it will ignore them, but if they give in to the fear, then it will attack, and they might not be able to escape to the surface again.

When walking the darker path, one can sometimes become distracted by the evil things that lurk along the way, somehow attracted to the darker energy, feeding on it. Evil things are defined by fear, anger, hate, and suffering, whether you intentionally cause them for others or heap them upon yourself. It is these things that cause so many people to confuse the "dark" with the "bad", and to avoid the darkness at all cost. Some people, when walking the dark path, give in to these evils, lashing out at those around them, or driving themselves into depression. I call this being ridden by the dark. But one must instead be willing to walk on through the dark and be aware that the evil is there, but learn not to give into it. The most balanced of people have learned how to ride the darkness, instead of being ridden, and they can use their anger or intimidation to achieve their goals, and then let it go completely and walk on with their life.

Top: I took the time to finish this one out of sequence with the others so that I could enter it into the Spartanburg Art Show. It did not get in the show, but I got it done well within the deadline, having only recieved the flyer for the show and deciding to enter it about a month before, if that. Very good for me to be working on a deadline and not only make it with time to spare, but the piece looks so good too! Other images: detail of the figures, and the full-size drawing of the scales for part of the eel dragon, which I traced onto the board in order to paint the scales.

Back to Black Ocean series