The Motion of the Ocean

I never really felt a strong connection to the beach until a couple years after I left California for the East Coast. Upon hearing I was from Los Angeles, I would be barraged by questions about the beach, most of which would be met with half hearted shrugs (which probably betrayed more of my west coast heritage than I thought). To me, the beach had always meant sunburns and sand filled food, experiences I can do without. It was only after returning after some time in New York that I was able to see beauty in the vast exanse of water. I had been distracted before, first by the desert border that separated the civilized land from the ocean, and second by the initial waves which my friends and I would inch closer to, but always ride back to shore. My true adoration of the ocean, oddly enough, came in large part from studies in physics and geology. A basic understanding of fluid dynamics allowed my curiosity to flourish. I was now amazed every time that I was able to see this mass scale science experiment working its way out. A series of particles behaving according to various observed rules.
I was taken back to this sense of wonder when I looked through Richard Sweeney's Motion Forms. What particularly stood out to me was a body of work consisting of folded paper sculptures which seem to mirror the forms of the sea quite well. The medium affords a clean elegance, giving the paper the qualities of a graceful dancer. More work from this and other series is available on Sweeney's website.