World Oceans Day: Descent to the Abyss

It’s World Oceans Day - a day to celebrate the role of the oceans in making our planet liveable. The ocean produces at least half of the planet’s oxygen and is home to the majority of all our biodiversity.

It’s no secret that the world’s oceans are massively under threat with ocean acidification, damaged or destroyed coral reefs and massively depleted fish stocks. And yet our oceans also offer enormous scope for new innovations and new discoveries. We still know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the deepest reaches of our oceans.

When I started my MA research into the deep sea I had no idea what strange and wonderful creatures called the deep ocean their home. The video below contains the sketches I made as part of my MA research. Some of these creatures were reinterpreted into my paintings as shapes or color influences. But I had so many of these sketches that I felt like they could tell their own story. Inspired by the 156 minutes it took James Cameron to reach the bottom of the deepest oceanic trench (Mariana Trench, approximately ) this is my interpretation of a descent into the abyss.