The Ocean Realm

I learned to scuba dive in 1997. It changed my life, because it taught me new ways to look at art and understand aesthetics.

This page is for meditations on the undersea world, and images I have taken of that realm. See the article about Catherine Rahn in the essays section for additional writing.

Around 1997 I also discovered the great philosopher of the ocean realm, Philippe Diolé. Writing in 1953, he expressed the feelings I too have felt while diving:

“Like many others, I do not feel in perfect harmony with our age and the solitude of diving lulls and stays a deep-rooted satisfaction. Down below, where dream and action move silently forward, side by side, through the dense water, we feel for a moment in tune with life.”

The images of whales were taken during an expediton to Tonga aboard the Nai’a to dive with Humpbacks, led by my mentor Stan Waterman.

The image with the shark is from a video of Pat and I at a depth of around 90 feet in Fiji—two reef sharks came out of the deep blue and circled us. It was unusual behavior.

See the link at the button below for more.