Adrift

"I am adrift in a houseboat built of paper and dreams."

Water Works series / digital illustration

Water Works series

Adrift



   I first made the sketch that eventually became this illustration in my journal early in 2020, amidst the pandemonium of the coronavirus pandemic and the first wave of quarantine lockdowns sweeping the globe. Common things were suddenly precious, the familiar abruptly dangerous, and nothing at all could be taken for granted. I don’t think I’d ever truly held still in my life before in quite the way I did then, and for a little while, the whole world shared that reflective pause. I developed a new empathy for my human ancestors who were separated from families and communities by distance and the necessities of individual survival, the constant questing for improved circumstances for ourselves and those who rely on us. Although this wasn’t the first piece I completed, it launched the series in my imagination, setting the tone and establishing some of the common elements - most notably, the paper boats.

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Water Works (series)

a series of narrative illustrations inspired by the stranger-than-fiction realities of the past several years, when personal, communal, and global concerns collided spectacularly to turn my life and expectations upside-down and cause me to reconsider a lot of things previously taken for granted