When regarding my artwork, I am often asked what draws me to paint such a diversity of marine life.
For me it begins with my birthplace – Shrewsbury – a mid-size English town on the Welsh border, surrounded by a near circular meander of the River Severn. A town steeped in Tudor history, full of winding streets and alleys with such intriguing names as The Bear Steps and Grope Lane (the latter so called because of the close proximity on either side of the overhanging buildings that blocked the light so one would have to ‘grope’ their way.).
It’s a town of much historical significance, and for me the most significant being that it is also the birthplace of Charles Darwin – the infamous ‘father’ of modern day thoughts on evolution.
When traveling, people would often ask me ‘where are you from?’ and I would answer ‘Shrewsbury’. When met with a questioning gaze I would add – ‘it’s the birthplace of Charles Darwin’, and some kind of international recognition was forged.
After traveling the world for several years and using Darwin as my towns ‘claim to fame’, I came to realize that, other than his birthplace and the title of a famous book he wrote, I knew next to nothing about who he was, how he came to his theory, and really I knew little about the theory in general.
Growing up I attended church of England primary and secondary schools where it was not thought ill of to teach evolution but was certainly not dwelled upon. I knew some vague connections our own species have to primates, something about Galapagos giant Tortoises, and that was the extent of my knowledge.
The bearded gentleman sitting outside of the Shrewsbury library became somewhat of an intriguing mystery I had to solve.
While browsing a Seattle book store one day, I happened upon ’The Song of the Dodo’ by David Quammen – a book whose subjects discuss the relationships between evolution and extinction. I picked up a copy and was soon hooked. Quammen’s writing is both entertaining and informative, and the scientific information written in such a way that the average ’layperson’ such as myself could make good sense of it.
Crossing continents, it brushed on a great many conservation topics I was already interested in, introduced me to some new issues, and highlighted the cascading effects of species extinction throughout entire ecosystems.
In addition, Quammen also includes brief biographies of both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace (the gentleman who gave Darwin the accidental ’kick up the ass’ to finish his book before he published the same theory he had come to independently).
I was captivated and began reading all I could regarding Darwin and evolution, including the Origin of the Species and The Voyage of the Beagle, the latter introducing me to a younger Darwin – not dissimilar to myself in his enjoyment of travel and fascination with nature.
The more I read the more enthralling the subject has become, and at the same time the more haunting and true its hidden messages.
Extinction is a natural way of life – indeed there could be no evolution without it and the earth could not be as unbelievably diverse as it has become. Yet its movements are carefully balanced – every species evolves to fit into its own circumstance depending on climate, predation and food supply. So when this balance is tipped – when a species becomes extinct before its due time – an ecosystem is left with holes and its composition will change entirely. Quammen likens this to a fine Persian rug – cut out one small piece and the entire thing will eventually unravel.
Human’s direct involvement with a great many species extinctions is a cause of tremendous concern for environmentalists the world over- and the fact that we often won’t even consider the fault our own is even more concerning. We are quick to blame other predatory species for the demise of another when in fact these species have been living in balanced harmony for many hundreds of years before humans and our insatiable greed came on the scene.
Darwin pondered this amongst many other things and hoped for a future of diversity and a true understanding of its roots.
Similarly, I consider these facts everyday and am constantly inspired by today’s activists and writers for the subject. I paint what I paint because I am inspired by the amazing diversity of ocean ecosystems and how they have become what they are. I also paint because I want people to understand the incredible beauty, complexity and importance of what is out there – just below the surface – a world left mostly unseen by humans. It is evolution at its finest – a creature or plant to fill every nook and cranny that needs a specialist skill, and it is unsurprisingly so when one considers that the oceans have been forming and evolving life for millions of years before the first creatures had the courage and audacity to take steps into a far dryer and emptier world.
I cross oceans and ecosystems with my art because in reality the entire world is an ecosystem and the problems of degradation of these habitats is global. We all have to change our thinking and actions if the oceans are to survive into the future, and essentially the survival of the human race is bound to this.
I have been lucky enough in my life to have experienced many of these amazing habitats and I hope that through sharing these in my artwork I can share a greater appreciation of life.
Darwin spent 25 years writing his book, 8 of these were spent studying barnacles and he was still unhappy with the final result! I feel I could spend far longer trying to express the way I feel about ocean diversity and not even have had the chance to portray half the creatures that comprises of.
The task is mammoth (please excuse the joke!), but like Darwin and his book, it is a labor of love and, in some small way, of importance for a better – more understanding world.
