On hot days, they would go for swims in the bay. Jack loved watching the boats move past with the wind in their sails.

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04.01.2021

Before color was added to this, I didn’t think about this drawing a lot. The lines were faint and warbled, and I really felt that this fish had no business showing up at all. As I filled in the blue for the water with a fainter blue over Jack and Sebastian’s bodies, I immediately warmed to most everything about it—even the fish. I began to think about being held up by a body of water—the fun of that, and the sense of foreignness I have with that experience.

I have a distinct memory from one summer when I must have been four or five years-old. My sister and I were by a swimming pool and my Dad was with us. Up to that point, I had only gotten into the pool if I was wearing a life jacket. I had taken swim lessons, but they had not all quite sunk in yet. Somehow, I had decided this was the day to jump into the water without the help of the jacket. I remember the anticipation, breaking of the surface of the water, and then the view up through the water as I began to sink down. It felt like a long time, but was only a second later that my Dad plunged through the surface above and pulled me back up and onto the deck. I later got to where I could maneuver around in the water, but I have never been a strong swimmer. Adult swim lessons come up in conversation every once-in-a-while, and this illustration did just a little bit to push that possibility forward.