Tsunami

April 2006
Materials:  a vague sense of impending doom; pixels
Digital collage,
Dreams
artwork

A polyptych based on a dream I had when I was a little kid. (This is my first digital collage, done without the benefit of a tablet, so it's really poor.)

In this dream I was wading in the sea, close to the shore where the water was only ankle-deep. I was completely alone. The day was bright and clear.

Without warning, I saw all the water recede, as though a low tide had come on suddenly. The sea vanished all the way out to the horizon, exposing the ocean floor. All around me were large, flat, round stones, still damp. There was no sand.

Then I heard a great rumbling in the distance, and I knew that it was the water, all of it, coming back at once. I stood helpless as an immense wave rose over the horizon and thundered towards me, blotting out the sky, its top foaming white as it curled over and began to break. And just as this wall of water was about to engulf me I said to myself, it probably won't hurt... it'll just crush me quick before I drown. I think.

And I imagined myself suddenly at the bottom of an ocean, wondering what the next few seconds would be like.

March/April 2006. Incorporates various images found on the web. All editting done with the Gimp. The pictures shown are only 25% original size.

I started with slide 5, which to me is the most resonant and "standalone" image. I still have a little fiddling to do with the slide 2, but basically this is it.