This is a special kind of commission. The kind when you feel like you are going to learn a lot about yourself as an artist and person, how creative minds can connect through an idea and make thoughts and dreams a visual reality. It has been such a pleasure getting to know this person I have never met, and creating a work of art that he hopes will become a family heirloom. Jeremy Tidwell is an ocean enthusiast, a pelagic soul. He writes about his thoughts and musings, but has been keeping them from the world until now...
His request was for me to read his personal work and see where it led me. The following excerpts are from his journals, accompanied by progress photos of his commissioned work of art. I will post a part 2 with the finished work of art as soon as I finish, but I thought you would all enjoy this little insight.

"Standing quietly and staring at the open ocean from the bow of my boat, I can the hear breeze, warm and kissed with salt, gently whipping the palms as it rushes over the weathered dock and across the wide green blades of St. Augustine grass, stirring the sand where the grass does not grow and carrying the heat from my sun soaked skin.

A dozen or so thin wispy clouds scatter over my head to make room for another summer evening storm building to the south across the incessantly hypnotizing deep blue water of the Atlantic Ocean as magnificent lightning flashes against the distant horizon, creating a thunder so lazy it’s bass note barely reaches my ears.

Far to the west, where the storm clouds have not gathered, the quickly waning sun has painted the sky in wonderfully thrilling shades of red, pink and orange as it surrenders to one horizon until it once again triumphs over the other." 

"The boat pitched steadily from bow to stern while I was underway, and it cast the ocean’s spray aside as it conquered each wave it met. When I paused, what had been a steady pitch, gave way to a slow steady roll as the waves continued beneath me, passing the boat through each trough from one peak to the next.

With the sun glowing overhead, my unclothed back became hot as I leaned out and removed my sunglasses to peer over the side, making what I saw below the hull of my old boat that much more intense.

On the ocean, in the space where the light is refracted so beautifully between the surface and the depth at which it is consumed forever by the abyss, great stories unfold for open minds. Mine is a tale of pirates plundering great ships, treasure lying across the sandy bottom and battles which must have been hellishly amazing. Mine is a tale of mermaids hiding just out of our view among vast brilliantly colored coral reefs, and it is a tale of life beneath the waves for the world’s most fabulous creatures and unbelievably beautiful fish. It is a tale that unfolds in the deep blue water illuminated only by the sun’s refracted light in reality, but painted with history and fantasy in those minds of those who stop and direct their gaze beneath the surface." - Jeremy Tidwell.

Thanks for the beautiful inspiration, Jeremy.
~Carly