Pages 2.0

Not long ago, I read an article about the shifting patterns in the oceans, which scientists attribute to global warming. Carbon dioxide and water mix to produce acidic conditions. It seems that, as atmospheric levels of C02 rise, the water becomes more acidic. Fish, shellfish and corals can’t thrive in acidic water, but jellyfish do. Asian societies already eat jellyfish, but as part of, not all of, their diets. Societies currently dependent on fish as protein and as a dietary staple will be forced to adapt, and, as acidic conditions spread and fish populations die out, jellyfish could become a primary protein source worldwide. The first image, “Diet For A Dying Planet,” is of a Portugese Man-O-War, a large, chambered animal (actually a siphonophore) with extremely long stinging tentacles. These can sting, for a time, even after the Man-O-War has died. The bluebottle variety is well-known in Australia and around the Pacific, especially on Australian beaches. People have died from its sting. It is a toxic creature that loves toxic wate.
The second image, “Skeletal,” is from my “Long Division” series. It resembles a dead tree or possibly the skeleton of a fish. It is a dead thing, a harbinger, a metaphor for what our planet can become.
The third image, “Journey to The Center of the Earth,” is from a series I did called Grotesque Mandalas. These are circular drawings, based upon the bloody Aztec sun calendar. This one began as a simple abstract and evolved, as I developed it, into something like an ovum or a one-celled animal. The central image became the head of a vulture, a carrion eater that lives nearly everywhere on earth. It does one thing very well. It waits. Carrion eaters are patient creatures, and they can out-wait, and in some ways outwit, us.