Just for Fun

Something happens to us when we get in the water. We forget our age, our inhibitions, sometimes even the people watching. We splash, dive, float, laugh and play — often with the same abandon we had as children.

Just for Fun was inspired by recent summers around the Mediterranean, but the observation behind it comes from a lifetime spent by the water. From childhood summers on the Black Sea to a decade around the North Sea, three years living in Asia, time in the Caribbean, and years spent travelling and swimming around the world, I’ve watched the same transformation happen again and again. Across cultures, languages and generations, water seems to level the playing field. Once we’re in it, many of the things that distinguish us on land begin to fall away.

I wanted to hold onto one tiny piece of that feeling — the split second when a hand hits the surface and the splash explodes into the air. The swimmers are deliberately ambiguous. We don’t know their age, nationality, background or relationship to one another. The coastal landscape is equally elusive. France? Italy? Greece? The Caribbean? And is that soft light from an early morning swim or the end of a long summer day?

The splash itself became the heart of the work: dozens of tiny, individually painted and hand-cut fragments suspended across an expanse of blue sea. Something that exists for barely a millisecond is suddenly frozen — all that movement, energy, spontaneity and joy held in one frame.

No reason. No purpose. Just for fun.

Inspirations

I’ve spent my life around water. From childhood summers on the Black Sea to a decade around the North Sea, three years living in Asia, time in the Caribbean and more recent summers around the Mediterranean, water has always been a constant. And wherever I am, one thing I’ve always loved is people-watching — observing how we behave around and in the water.

Despite the differences in place, culture, language and age, the same transformation seems to happen everywhere. Once we get in, we become less inhibited. We dive, float, splash and play. The distinctions that feel important on land begin to disappear.

Just for Fun grew from that observation. The swimmers have no defined age, nationality, background or relationship to one another, and the landscape belongs to no particular coast. Even the light is intentionally ambiguous — is it the beginning of a summer day or the last swim before sunset?

What matters is the moment between them: spontaneous, universal and completely without purpose. Just for fun.

I’ve spent my life around water. From childhood summers on the Black Sea to a decade around the North Sea, three years living in Asia, time in the Caribbean and more recent summers around the Mediterranean, water has always been a constant. And wherever I am, one thing I’ve always loved is people-watching — observing how we behave around and in the water.

Despite the differences in place, culture, language and age, the same transformation seems to happen everywhere. Once we get in, we become less inhibited. We dive, float, splash and play. The distinctions that feel important on land begin to disappear.

Just for Fun grew from that observation. The swimmers have no defined age, nationality, background or relationship to one another, and the landscape belongs to no particular coast. Even the light is intentionally ambiguous — is it the beginning of a summer day or the last swim before sunset?

What matters is the moment between them: spontaneous, universal and completely without purpose. Just for fun.

Material & Features
Creative Process

I wanted to freeze something that normally exists for barely a millisecond — not only the energy and movement of a splash, but the fleeting emotion that comes with it: that sudden, uninhibited burst of pure joy.

I deliberately stripped the composition of details that could define the swimmers, their relationship, the location or even the time of day. Instead, I worked with simplified figurative forms, negative space and expansive layers of blue, allowing the interaction between the figures and the water to tell the story.

The splash itself was built piece by piece. Dozens of small fragments of paper were individually painted, cut by hand and layered across the canvas to trace the movement of the water through the air. Suspended against the blue sea, they turn a fleeting gesture into something almost sculptural — holding a single moment of movement, emotion and joy in place.

I wanted to freeze something that normally exists for barely a millisecond — not only the energy and movement of a splash, but the fleeting emotion that comes with it: that sudden, uninhibited burst of pure joy.

I deliberately stripped the composition of details that could define the swimmers, their relationship, the location or even the time of day. Instead, I worked with simplified figurative forms, negative space and expansive layers of blue, allowing the interaction between the figures and the water to tell the story.

The splash itself was built piece by piece. Dozens of small fragments of paper were individually painted, cut by hand and layered across the canvas to trace the movement of the water through the air. Suspended against the blue sea, they turn a fleeting gesture into something almost sculptural — holding a single moment of movement, emotion and joy in place.

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