Uncontrollable Wild
Quite often I look around for tales of old on the subject of the sea; in particular, lately, including sea serpents, the myths and legends from all around the world seem universal.
The themes of these tales are often fairly similar, a sighting of a serpent previously unknown about, great battles between man and beast, and it’s threat to overwhelm mankind. These fascinate me, and I am always looking out for prose or poetry which speaks, somewhat, in conversation to my work, as I am not alway able to quite put into words the meaning of what I paint. You’d think I’d know what they’re about, seeing as I paint them, but I really don’t a lot of the time. I’m driven by a gut feeling which can be hard to pin down, and I am not much of a writer nor philosopher.
When I discovered The Great Sea Serpent of Casco Bay by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder, I was utterly astonished. She had expertly captured all I have ever wanted to say about our relationship with nature, in one perfect article.
That she referenced our intrinsic fear of the unknown, our deluded perception of dominance over the natural world, and how myths of sea serpents encapsulates our relationship to the wild, feels as though she has taken the words right out of my mouth, words I am incapable of collecting succinctly as she has done. I have read it many times.
I’d already made a few paintings with serpents in them, but this inspired another which I titled Uncontrollable Wild, a phrase included in her text. It is so validating to my work and I feel as though it has given me a more grounded starting point, I am not flailing around with a paintbrush, but am commenting on something intrinsic and intuitive.
It was written and published in June 2018 in Emergence Magazine. Read it here.