Inspired by the works of JC Leyendecker, American Traditional tattoos, and edibles at the aquarium, I wanted to try to tell a story with this piece—in the same way that Leyendecker’s Saturday Evening Post covers said so much of a visual story. This was one of those pieces where there was a lot of note-taking, figuring out how to weave the narrative throughout and how I would piece together the marine life kaleidoscope in the background. The swallows symbolize nautical distance traveled, the “COME HOME” signal flags, the Siren’s longing expression, the message in a bottle, the lockets, her sailor hat and binoculars, the moon jellies symbolize the moon phases, etc. etc. I started with the Morris Island Lighthouse and made up the background as I went along working on the piece… thankfully it all (more or less) came together in the end.
