Submerged

Brandy Scholl

Area: Metals

Thesis Statement

I am intrigued by the ocean and its effects on the human body. Specifically, I am fascinated by how going under the water changes my own mental and physical state. Growing up around large bodies of water, I spent much of my youth swimming and diving down under the surface for as long as my lungs would allow. The weightless floating, the lack of sound and smell, the fluctuations in temperature, the fractured beams of sunlight refracting through the water, and the push and pull of the ocean currents all combine to create a temporary sense of meditative detachment and euphoria. My work explores this relationship to the ocean by examining the effects of the water on my body and mind while submerged. It is based on my own experiences and perspective, how I perceive the feeling of being underwater for a single moment in time. For those few fleeting minutes, I surround myself in a bubble of solitary contemplation away from familiar sights, sounds, and troubles of life above the water's surface. "Submerged" evokes the quiet mental stillness found in the uncontrollable movement of the currents, the slight sensory deprivation, and the weightless physical freedom that pulls the body and mind into introspective places.