I came up with this concept a few months ago, while staying in Gig Harbor, Washington. During my stay I got really interested in the abundance of life that kept washing up on the shore; mussels, oysters and barnacles, small crabs laying under rocks and so on. My initial thought was to draw two embracing figures coming out of the waters covered with various sea life to the point where they are unrecognizable. I held off though, feeling that something was missing from the rough sketch I made. Other projects kept coming in and I had to put this idea in my mental drawer. A few months later, I came up with the solution, only one of the figures will be obscured by sea remnants, the other will be bare – a contrast to the first. I also changed the angle, putting the girl high above and the other figure coming from below adding more tension to the composition.

The drawing and even more so the colors, were inspired by the japanese wooblock print artist – Kawase Hasui. In his prints there is often an impression of nature and man’s mark in it, at a certain time of a day or season of the year, I feel like if there was such a thing as visual haikus – he’d be the undisputed master.

A print of Ebb & Flow is available in the printstore!