Swimmer (diptych) Painting

I love to explore the idea of people underwater. I want to explore figures in an underwater setting and whether they are sinking or swimming. As I have been exploring that idea, the water on canvas become less of a threatening sinking idea and I have been more transfixed by the translucent quality of it, the play of the oxygen creating bubbles in the water. The English poet, Stevie Smith says “I was much too far out and not waving but drowning.” Her poem really speaks to me as I create water that can look so serene, so beautiful as the light hits it. Is this water so beautiful but threatening or so dark and foreboding but the diver is totally transfixed and in his element. I continue to explore the idea that maybe the figure is in limbo...not sinking or swimming.