In Submerged, I dive into the vast, limitless space between the transcendence of being held by water and the weight of a body without breath.

As a lifelong swimmer, water is home: it’s where I feel weightless, expansive, and free. On land, submersion can feel like overwhelm from a dysregulated nervous system.

Between these extremes lives something deeper. A whole world of sensation, perception, and discovery that shifts not with circumstance but with how we inhabit each moment.

Depth can feel like freedom—a doorway into a vast and magical universe in hues of blue—or it can feel like drowning.

This painting explores the universe between buoyancy and suffocation where the difference is feeling safe.