Gyotaku Studies
Brought to Light
This series marks my return to Charleston — to the salt air, the Lowcountry culture, the food pulled fresh from the sea, and the rhythms of a place I once left behind.
Each fish and turtle in these works is caught at the exact moment it is pulled from its hidden universe into ours. In that violent transition — from water into air, from darkness into blinding light — the creature is unmasked. Its protective world is stripped away. The wide eye, the open mouth, the final struggle: these are the raw, unfiltered expressions of a being suddenly exposed.
I see in them the same threshold we all cross at the moment of profound rupture or death — the instant when every mask falls and we are forced to face what we truly are under the light. The blackening drips record that slow, irreversible transformation: from living creature to relic, from hidden to revealed.
These are not still lifes. They are portraits of unmasking, and experimenting with going beyond the canvases.
Dark yet hopeful.
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Tile Fish Carbon pencil, blackening watercolours, and inks on paper mounted to canvas · 2026
These Gyotaku studies represent an ongoing experimental thread in my practice. Using the traditional Japanese technique of fish printing — pressing inked fish directly onto paper — I explore the direct imprint of nature, the beauty of fleeting form, and the honest record of a living creature, from my home and the sea off Charleston.
Dark yet hopeful.
Trigger Fish Carbon pencil, blackening watercolours, and inks on paper mounted to canvas · 2026
While my main body of work focuses on painted unmasking and the blackening layers of human experience, these studies also allow me to step outside the studio and engage with the immediate, tactile world. Where the thought of the shock of the “ Fish being pulled into the sun filled air, and its’ reality being overturned, focuses my own exploration of the masks we carry about our reality. They serve as both technical experiments and quiet meditations on presence, impermanence, and the delicate balance between control and surrender.
Dark yet hopeful.
Flounder ( Bottom Feeder ) Carbon pencil, blackening watercolours, and inks on paper mounted to canvas · 2026
I create larger works from these studies, expanding the intimate impressions into more ambitious compositions that reach beyond the canvas. Through Gyotaku, I continue to push my practice — testing new materials, embracing unpredictability, and reminding myself that artistic growth often comes from returning to simple, direct observation.
Dark yet hopeful.
Turtle Carbon pencil, blackening watercolours, and inks on paper mounted to canvas · 2026
This turtle was taken from a pond by an osprey, and flown high in the sky before being dropped breaking his shell. Like the fish a sudden rupture of its reality. I honor them with these representations.
Dark yet hopeful.
Black Drum