Art: “A Delicate Balance”, 2024, 20 in x 16 in, Oil Paint on Wood Panel

This painting was published as the cover for Penumbra’s Summer publication, “Water, Water Everywhere.” (The full publication can be found here) This painting further inspired a poem I wrote to publish alongside it titled “Sorrow of the Siren,” which reads as follows:

I’m trapped between two worlds, never completely submerged, yet unable to resurface. I linger in the in-between, watching from my secluded cove as fish and humans secure themselves to their halves of existence.

I amuse myself by observing the humans who embrace the water without ever becoming part of it. They splash, ride their boats, and don their scuba gear to experience a fraction of my entire life. But at the end of the day, I find myself disconnected from them as they can choose to lift themselves out and return to dry land.

I tried to find a connection with the creatures below. We both adorn fins and scales. We both spend long hours beneath the water. We both exist in a multitude of colors.

But they do not think like me. They do not feel like me, cry like me, or yearn for connection like me.

I’m living an isolating existence between two worlds. My siren song remains silent as I search for a serenade within myself. An enigma, a myth—let me blend in but never truly belong to either side.