The Great White

Signage as Window to the Inner Realm

The Great White, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 in., painted in 2017

The idea of a killer shark is like fear we cannot often see outright yet has a great presence. Fear circles our minds. Fear feels like that deep unknown beneath your feet. Fear is an imaginary shark fin we see to a body we do not see – we often create the body to the fin. 

The Great White is about challenging the idea of fear. This powerful figure of the ocean is situated between the two conflicting worlds, where the idea of fear reverses. The fine line dividing the water and the horizon signifies the underlying irony of the environment in which the shark, strongest underwater, can be the weakest above water.

A second message is painted, turning the painting upside down. What do you see?

The painter finds significance in warning signage in that it can change the future, a potential outcome of an event, perhaps as deadly as death, and the irony in which the voice becomes so repetitive that it does not scream anymore. She plays with her own variation of the warning sign to potentially change future perspectives.