They are remarkable percentages, the numbers for how much water is both in the human body and covering the earth. (Approximately 60% and 71%, respectively.) It is this psyche-entrenched inspiration that is the theme for the BAYarts October exhibition by Robert Hartshorn and Sharon Pomales Tousey, entitled Just Add Water.

These unconventional and award-winning artists will be offering their personalized viewpoints for how they relate to water. One commonality is that both have always lived close to a body of it. For water-sports loving Hartshorn, it’s something he describes as “in [my] blood.” He was even a scuba dive boat operator in Key Largo, Florida, once upon a time. Pomales Tousey, who loves boating, was born and raised in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, and then moved to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on the Atlantic before moving to Bay Village, Ohio, on Lake Erie.

Both artists have one piece they were especially eager to discuss. Having worked on The Mermaid for ten years, Hartshorn is finally ready to display the piece for this exhibition. He designed it with John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in mind, and he’s focused on the message it sends. “[The state park] is being degraded by environmental pressures, but I want to show its beauty of forty years ago when I first went snorkeling in it. It makes me present to the magical feeling of being and breathing underwater: the pressure, the immensity, the ‘otherness’ of it.”

Pomales Tousey’s Predators is set in the Open Sea tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. “The main characters, the sharks, were ‘placed’ there from other sketches,” explains the artist. “This painting comments on the threat humans represent to marine life, in this case, sharks. Even though ‘finning’ is illegal in the US, the slaughter of thousands of sharks for their fins is still practiced in Asia.”

Just Add Water: Sharon Pomales Tousey and Robert Hartshorn. Opening reception October 11, 7:00 to 9:00pm.

 

 

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