For this series, I collaborated with Dr. Michael Perfit, a marine geologist at the University of Florida’s Department of Geological Sciences. In my initial conversations with him, we spoke at great length about the nature of his dives to the bottom of the seafloor inside ALVIN, a deep-ocean research submersible. While Dr. Perfit has taken over forty of these ALVIN dives to depths of up to 12,000 feet, this series is based upon a specific dive to study the East Pacific Rise. He spoke about the ‘magical light show’ that are clouds of bioluminescent organisms as well as the ghostly nature of landforms that seem to appear out of nowhere in the depths of the ocean that receive no light. We also spoke about the high stressors of the journey down: the risk of fire, the extremely close quarters, the pressure of reaching the bottom, and the surrounding water’s freezing temperatures that ALVIN’s steel cannot insulate against. Through this series, I aim to capture the sense of wonder and pilgrimage that Dr. Perfit has experienced trekking down thousands of feet in the name of study. I have also mended my love for film and its visual qualities to compose the scenes underwater. The title “The Jaguar Shark Must Be Close” references the fabled beast from Wes Anderson’s ‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.’ In the first painting, viewers can see what researchers in the submersible are viewing through the small glowing portholes. In the center, the captain operates ALVIN while the accompanying researchers direct him spatially. In the third, we see that the colossal landform the researchers are focused on is only a fraction of the surrounding seafloor’s form along with the glowing cloud of bioluminescence at the top.

Background on Dr. Perfit:

Dr. Perfit is Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida where he has worked since 1982. He has been a principal investigator on numerous research grants from the National Science Foundation and NOAA. His research has focused on the petrogenesis of mid-ocean ridge basalts, island arc lavas, magma genesis of seamounts, and the tectonics of oceanic spreading centers. He has taken more than 40 dives to depths up to 12,000 feet in the deep-sea submersible ALVIN during his research. He has participated on over 25 oceanographic research cruises and served as co-chief scientist of several of these.