In the Summer of 2018, I was very lucky to be able to spend some time at University of Washington's Friday Harbor Labs on San Juan Island, WA. This is a place where scientists research invertebrates in labs located directly on the shore. They have a U of W fishing boat for dives, and tidal pools all along the coast of the island where they can collect wildlife. I was given a studio on the premises by the Whitely Foundation and there I spent my time in the octopus lab and the studio, drawing these fascinating, beautiful, foreign creatures.

The Friday Harbor Labs have fairly rustic accommodations, and things haven't changed much in the past fifty years. They have a bulletin board full of various keys to buildings and cabins, all labeled with round paper keychain discs of various ages and condition. They had a beauty to them, and although I didn't know how I was going to make use of this information, I couldn't get that bulletin board out of my mind. Once I was back in Seattle, and I found these key chains in a hardware store, the idea gelled. I wanted to make small drawings on these miniature 'canvases' of sea life. This was the beginning of the Plankton project, or Drifters, which is both an installation, and a limited edition artist book.