Death can be beautiful at times. In nature is one of those moments when you can overlook the how one dies, but admire death's display, the position it ended up in. While in Mexico recently, I came across some wonderful death still life's.
A coatimundi skull and body was discovered. We saw gangs of them wandering about in a friendly enough fashion.
Appreciating death is not easy. I lost my father a year ago. He would have loved this trip, for he had quite a life long love for the sea and wanted to become an oceanographer for his fifth, sixth? career change. He taught me so many amazing things about understanding life, and he helped me see the beauty in dead things. I remember when he took me on my first scuba trip. it had me mesmerized. From the meditative breathing to the incredulous creatures swimming by me, I fell hard for the sea. I was a teenager heading nowhere fast and in danger of crashing, and he showed me the possibilities that life offered me. I grabbed my camera and ran far and wide, always on the search for new discoveries.
This recent trip to Akumal found us swimming just above five
juvenile cuttlefish, guarding their territory. Typically shy, in the past they would quickly swim away upon my nearing them. But these stood their ground. I looked into their huge donut shaped eyes, tried communicating with hand/arm gestures, I felt like I was communicating with aliens. Simply incredible. They used some tentative aggressive moves. I tried appearing more non-threatening, there to simply observe,and so we all just stared at one another for a bit, and after I had my fill of their pulsating colors, I swam off to leave them in peace.
A much needed escape from my life constantly looking at facebook and wondering what news will come next with this new presidency. I am grateful to both my parents for encouraging me to follow my passion to become an artist.
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