Trusting the World of the Sea

A man and a girl of five or so walking the shoreline, hand in hand. Waves roll gently over their feet.

Mini-art format, 40 × 30 cm, mixed media. “Trusting the World of the Sea”.

Their steps match by feel and not by rhythm. He walks calmly, without hurry, and pulls her nowhere.

The hand here is support, and no kind of control. The difference between those shows in the posture, and I worked on that longer than on anything else in this one.

The girl steps boldly, straight into the water, and lets the waves touch her.

The sea takes part. It accepts their steps and adjusts, the horizon is open, the breathing of the space is even.

Trust is not built out of words. It is built out of the bodily memory of walks like this, and a person leans on that for the rest of their life.

The world is not dangerous when somebody is behind you.

A small canvas for a nursery shelf or a narrow wall by a bed.