I work through a range of media but my strength is in the digital. I’m interested in the collaboration process. When Ben came to me with the idea of creating a series of artworks that followed the evolution of a number of marine orders (groups of animals) through deep time I was not sure how to approach it aesthetically. Ben has an ongoing love for the artist Turner. Ben felt that Turners works (although I’m sure Turner did not intend for them to be seen this way) might at times suggest millions of years within one frozen moment. So following this idea we decided to strive to create marine environments that depicted flux over millions of years within the moment. That was the idea and I think we achieved it. I became very interested in achieving translucent lighting effects for these aquatic environments. One thing that really impressed me about this project was that it helped me gain some insights into how old this planet of ours really is. Ben places a lot of emphasis on being scientifically accurate and spent a long time researching the fossil aspect of the work. I enjoyed this project and look forward to future collaborations with Ben.
The meaning behind the work titled Marine Impressions that Ben and I created is as follows. From left to right the work conceptually spans approximately 2 billion years ago until the present. The work is chronologically based and consists of 18 images. It was at approximately 2 billion years ago that the seas changed colour from green to blue. Reading the work from left to right, the first 6 images represent the seas from approximately 2 billion years ago to 545 million years ago. The next 11 images represent the 11 periods of geological time from the Cambrian to the Quaternary. Each panel features fossils of Ammonites, Trilobites & Echinoderms which existed in that period of time. The Trilobites became extinct at the end of the Permian, some 290mya (million years ago). The Ammonites became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, 65mya. Echinoderms continue but not in the same diversity as previously witnessed. The last panel features a wedge-tail eagle. This marks the beginning of modern life forms. The absence of fossils from an image means that the group had all but gone extinct or had not yet evolved.