Cannon Beach

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Camera: Hasselblad XPan

What makes it special: Every body of water has its own voice. Ever changing, it shifts from one moment to the next. First it welcomes, soothes and touches, then it can threaten with unparalleled natural power and force.

The story:  "Water has always been integral in my life. I was raised on an island in the middle of the largest body of water on Earth, and I've been told that I was swimming before I walked. Water's movement has always touched me. I think it symbolizes my first true immersion in textural space. No matter where I am, water's call somehow finds me and inevitably demands my focus. From the beginning it has always been about how it feels.

After a lifetime of exploring water in all of its forms all over the planet, water and its depth and luster continue to entice, stimulate, and expand my creativity. Water in its three chemically identical but physically different states takes on so many forms and its scope covers such a huge myriad of tones, textures, temperatures, temperaments...attitudes...

Water has been a lifetime calling for me and my art, and it is a profound subject forever demanding deeper exploration and discovery. The way it reflects light, the way it moves from the inside out, the way it morphs into the physical space around it captivates my senses. Water is as timeless as the ocean, as familiar yet undefinable as a cloud, as primordial and grounding yet uncertain as a glacier. Water is perhaps main among the many reasons I call Tahoe home.

Strolling Cannon Beach on the Oregon coastline at sunset, I experienced the last light of yet another day moved by Ocean. I watched the waves breaking on little islands of rock redirecting the paths of the waves, their power not blocked, just shifted. Time passes; the light evolves. I explore the pulse of white wash foaming up between my toes, the cold sending another impulse to my heart. I come across a stream, turn my back on the sea and walk inland to a new perspective. I crouch low, choose an angle just above the surface, and observe the gentle wavering of the stream's rippled light. I shoot a few pictures, stop, reflect and go deeper into the moment. For the water in this stream, this ends the journey from the mountains to meet a distant cousin, familiar yet foreign, uniting with the vast ocean. It's a new beginning in an endless cycle.

I'm filled with the sound and movement around me. It's presence engulfs me in beautiful stillness. It comes from all directions, has no beginning or ending, just a sense of serenity in the midst of perpetual change. I move slowly, scrunching low, feeling for the right perspective to enable my camera to somehow translate this depth of deep, pure calm.

There is no other moment than now. My creative voice is called, my inner being is touched, my instincts react autonomically. The crimson line of heaven and earth, land and sea, fresh and salt water blend together in an ethereal, ephemeral and evanescent moment in time."