Santa Cruz Island Painted Cave

One of the longest sea caves in the world, almost 1,230 feet from mouth to back wall, cut into the volcanic cliffs on the northwest side of Santa Cruz Island. The colour comes from mineral stains and lichens and algae layered across the rock, blues and ochres and greens that read as paint from a kayak below. The cave belongs to Channel Islands National Park, twenty-some miles off the Ventura coast, reachable only by sea. Calm water lets the smaller boats pass into the first chamber. In winter it is closed by the swells. In summer, sea lions argue from the back of the dark.

Slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, in our family studio in Knoxville, Tennessee.