“Modern life can be so comfortable it’s hard to tell what's real, and the ocean just flips that on its head. When I'm in the water, I can see and feel clearly what's me and what's not. That interaction between the inner and outer world feels a lot like the beach, and how the sand and water are in an endless conversation, shaping each other. There's no clean divide, the edge between them is more of a place we occupy than where the line on the map ends. There's space in the lines that we draw, and their truth is approximate."
Shane McClatchey is a painter based in Laguna Beach, California. His body of work explores the relationship between people and the ocean. Evoking the Dutch Golden Age of painting in the 17th century, McClatchey’s figures are suspended in moments of sacred joy while going about their everyday activities.