I still remember riding over that first "monster wave" (and it was probably only 2' high) as a toddler in my yellow floatie ring and the thrill of looking down the face is as clear as day. I never knew how much this event became a big part of me until I moved to Colorado but more on that next month when I'll be relaying my mountaineering stories here.
The ocean is where I learned to be both vulnerable and strong as a young girl. Spending significant amounts of time in the ocean is an important rite of passage in our beach and surf community. This socialization also creates a strong bond and identity within the family unit-even to our extended family of sailors and surfers. As a family of ocean-goers, we are instantly incorporated into a larger social group that honors vulnerability, courage, and a free-spirit.
My children have grown up knowing the lure and danger of the ocean their entire lives. From the time they could crawl I found myself photographing them in the waves and depths of the Pacific Ocean on a near daily basis.
I tell the story of them learning to trust their own power and vulnerability and me as a parent learning to let them be in their own perilous world in my series Rite of Water:
The water is one of the few places where we can learn to be both fragile and capable. My children were exposed to the lure and the danger of the ocean their entire childhood. I witnessed them learning to trust their power and be at peace with their vulnerability as they went through a unique "rite of passage."
Each color frame represents the early phase or 'the cutting away.' This is where they are leaving what is familiar and comfortable. It represents the reality we see as parents, friends, and family. They appear to be courageous and capable. We can see that they are safe.
The black and white frames represent the phase where the uncertainty happens. Their consciousness is unclear. They are 'threshold people.' They have left the safety of our arms and are in the throes of danger and a new way of seeing themselves. This is synonymous with rebirth.
Victor Turner describes it like this: "Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention… Liminality is frequently likened to death, to being in the womb, to invisibility, to darkness, to bisexuality, to the wilderness, and to an eclipse of the sun or moon."
Rite of Water also expresses my own personal duality in its diptych presentation. It displays my insecurity about creating in color vs black and white as an "artist." It expresses a split between being a mother who holds her family grounded in safety vs a desire to be an adventurer exploring other worlds with all the risks.
