A PDF of Totemic Objects from the Ocean

200-400 eyes of the sea scallop.

Please click on the sentence below to view this PDF:

Through processes of transformation I present these palladium prints of objects from the ocean.

I have placed a few works from my current ocean portfolio in the above linked PDF. These works have grown from my sense of sanctuary in long walks at the ocean’s edge during this time of Covid lockdown.

Feeling wave upon wave wash over the sand moved me into the cyclic and expansive motion of the ocean. To express the ocean’s vastness and materiality, I pick up remnants of sea life washed onto the sand.

Placing these fragments of sea life directly into my enlarger, I make camera-free large 16 X 20 inch negatives to contact print using brushed palladium metal on translucent Japanese gampi paper and expose the negatives and paper using the direct rays of the sun.

When I place these fragments in my enlarger, the depth of field is similar to a lens that is wide open on a large format camera. Some details are sharply focused while others are softly embraced.

Using palladium allows for tonal distinctions of extreme subtlety. Sometimes when I paint the palladium on the paper, I paint only the shape of the object and leave the rest of the paper open. This I have done with the corals. Centering the corals allows for the concentration of their forms.

(Nature In) Lockdown Exhibition: Ocean Totems

Still life of part of an Horseshoe Crab with seaweed. Horseshoe crabs are integral to medical science and also a threatened species.

Strands of seaweed, horseshoe crabs, shells, broken glass–ocean and human debris–the viscosity of salt water teeming with life–ebb and flow. When animals left the ocean for land, they took the sea with them. Our veins carry the same mixture of sodium, potassium and calcium as sea water. The ocean is our origin.

My hands forage for what the sea gives. I create prints to express its marvels.

A few of my palladium prints that I created from camera-less negatives of these sea fragments are part of an online exhibition https://fayddigital.com/Nature-in-lockdown published by this online magazine which works at the intersection of art, design and the environment.

Art and Poetry

Palladium print of Irish Moss found in the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine. Irish moss shields many sea creatures which inhabit this mossy turf.

When in the Gulf of Maine the sea ebbs, the seaweed named Irish moss is revealed. Irish moss cushions living things in layers. Rachel Carson describes this as “life exists on other life, or within it, or under it, or above it” in her book “The Edge of the Sea”.

At Arts Gowanus Open Studios, October 19 and 20, noon to 6 PM, 69 Second Ave., Brooklyn, I will display this camera-less, palladium print in collaboration with this poem by poet Diane Mehta.

Vent a dome, invent a habitat

for tubeworm, sea-stout, eelpout

waltzing, 700 degrees in love.

They must know their origin

is hydrothermal swirling,

that fate is motion-of-lfe

agitating to occupy the world.

School of Visual Arts Bio Art Residency 2025

The tail of a shrimp enlarged to show its architecture in this palladium print on handmade Japanese gampi.

I felt privileged to be a part of this Bio Art Residency this May/June of 2025. I explored using microscopes to examine sea creatures and seaweeds. This exploration gave me impetus for new work. At the end of the residency we did exhibits of our work. Here are connections to some of the work I exhibited. https://www.alicegarik.com/work/sea-eye/ https://www.alicegarik.com/work/stars-snakes-sea/ https://www.alicegarik.com/work/biomorphic/

This large, 16 X 20 inch, palladium print is the tail of a shrimp.