Ryan Sobel

Born and raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, the sea was not always the focus of my artwork. As a child, I had always found myself drawn to the natural world. From endless visits to local parks or zoos, each more exciting than the last, arose sketchpads overflowing with drawings of the day’s discoveries. The place I called home, in the landlocked midwest, was roughly five-hundred miles from the nearest ocean; and to me, this watery marine world was more fantasy than reality. The sea was a beautiful daydream in my mind, revealed through the colorful pages of books, which portrayed brilliant scenes of reefs teeming with life and the mysterious dark, cold, depths, where life seemed more alien than earthly. The more I read, the more my captivation grew.


Marine life and ecosystems became the spotlight of my artwork. I drew from photography and film references, and later from real experiences as I traveled the coasts of the United States. I wanted to bring the beauty of this vivid undersea world which I saw in my travels, back to those in the landlocked region I called home. As my travel map expanded, and learned the truth about the perils our planet’s oceans face, I became concerned. Due to human interactions, the health of ...