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Lauren Walkiewicz

@lmcmansion

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Pronounced wal-KEV-itch;
/wɑlˈkɛvɪtʃ/
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Every night, billions of marine organisms participate in one of the largest migrations on Earth. Known as diel vertical migration, animals such as zooplankton, fish, jellies, and squid rise toward the surface to feed, then descend into deeper water during the day to avoid predators. This constant movement creates invisible pathways through the ocean, much like the routes humans create through transportation systems. My artwork considers this parallel between natural and human movement. Roads, train lines, shipping routes, and airways organize how people travel across landscapes, while marine organisms follow environmental cues through the water column. Both systems are defined by movement, direction, repetition, and interconnected networks. The comparison draws attention to the different ways movement is organized, from engineered infrastructure on land to biological responses within the ocean. Binky has finally be feeling better since her spinal injury in February and we have gotten to enjoy some time at the studio again this summer✨💅🥰 taken in Brooklyn Art Studios by @lmcmansion
12
13 days ago
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My favorite painting 💙🦋🪼 One of the things that drew me back to painting was thinking about visibility, murkiness and lack of information. In the water this lack of clarity always feels so visceral. The experience of staring into the ocean knowing something is out there beyond the capabilities of the human eye is such a strange and sometimes terrifying experience. Visibility underwater refers to how far you can see through the water, while turbidity describes how cloudy or murky the water is due to suspended particles such as sediment, plankton, algae, or organic matter. High turbidity scatters and absorbs light, reducing visibility and making it difficult to see objects at a distance. Clear water allows sunlight to penetrate deeper, creating greater visibility and often brighter colors. Visibility can change dramatically depending on location, weather, currents, tides, and recent storms. Even within the same body of water, conditions can vary from crystal clear to nearly opaque, making underwater environments constantly changing. Swipe to see a hammerhead approach then fade back into the depths by @lmcmansion
4
21 days ago
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Although I am super inspired by the ocean and its images translate well to social media, the other half of my interest is industrial. Specifically, vehicles and their tires. If you know me, you know I am from the Motor City and I love my Piaggio and FJ Cruiser. I admire their beauty and their service. I have also spent the last four years creating all of my sculptures in my dear friend Stuart’s Zamboni repair shop. Some of you might have even gotten drunk at Zamboni Bar when it existed (may she rest in peace 🕊️ #zamboner4life). Being surrounded by machines and this love of industry is still present in my new work: all of the patterns I paint are tire tracks from the shop. I distort them digitally in Procreate, one swipe and suddenly their geometric humanness is taken from them and they become jellyfish or spinal cords or the shine of oily water. This love of vehicles, at odds with my love of the ocean, is such a point of tension. I think it is for all of us, even the phone you are holding has coltan, which is a conflict mineral often mined by child labor in endangered gorilla habitat. These contradictions are something I think of often. My solution is often bedding down in a pile of my own trash and throwing nothing out. It seems like a fitting punishment, although it solves absolutely nothing. Knowing all this isn’t really essential to viewing the work, but it’s something that is foundational for me in creating it. It’s a sort of wishful thinking that our human products could seamlessly return to nature with a single swipe. It’s also an acknowledgment that we are the earth and not some alien force brought here. Anything we do is deeply a part of this planet, whether it was made by us or not. Swipe to see some tires, timelapse WIPs of how I start the digital sketching process, Stuart and I in action, etc. And for the love of all that is holy, please start liking my paintings so I don’t have to take any more of these damn pictures of myself for the algorithm!! The tires A work in progress. For some reason the timelapse doesn’t record the actual liquify process. Stu and I checking some type of engine pressure situation Typical shenanigans in the sho taken in Greenpoint by @lmcmansion
19
a month ago
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Why is the coral in the Red Sea so healthy? The Red Sea is home to some of the most remarkable coral reefs on Earth. One reason is temperature. Corals in the northern Red Sea appear to have an unusually high tolerance for heat, allowing them to survive temperatures that can stress corals elsewhere. The Red Sea is also relatively isolated, creating a distinctive ecosystem that has developed over thousands of years. Its clear, nutrient-poor water allows sunlight to penetrate deeply. This supports the microscopic algae living inside coral tissues, which provide much of the coral’s energy. High salinity and strong seasonal changes have also shaped these communities. Over time, these conditions have favored corals that are exceptionally adapted to environmental stress. The result is a reef system with remarkable resilience and one that scientists consider an important potential refuge for corals as oceans continue to warm. Thank you to @legacyliveaboards and @freedivinghurghada for the help getting to know the area taken in Red Sea Egypt by @lmcmansion
5
a month ago
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30”x40” Oil on Canvas, 2026 Blackwater diving is a type of night diving that takes place in the open ocean, usually far from the reef or seafloor. Instead of swimming over a familiar landscape, divers descend into the deep, dark water and drift in the current while surrounded by nothing but open ocean. The dive typically takes place above very deep water, with powerful lights used to illuminate the darkness. Divers are free floating in the dark, not tethered. The giant guiding light orients the divers, photographers and scientists while they search for life. What makes blackwater diving so extraordinary is the nightly vertical migration. After sunset, enormous numbers of marine organisms rise from the deep toward the surface to feed. This includes tiny crustaceans, jellies, larvae, worms, siphonophores, squid and juvenile fish, many of which look completely alien when illuminated in the darkness. Because many of these animals are transparent, bioluminescent, or only briefly encountered, every dive is unpredictable. You might see something microscopic, or something surprisingly large drifting through the blackness. I only experienced very small creatures. It is less like exploring a landscape and more like entering another world, one that is constantly moving, transforming, and disappearing back into the darkness. This is what the big light looks like, and all the small lights are the other divers in the distance. As I pan across the dark my light catches a siphonophore in the distance I got to go diving with Linda the author of this book and see the creatures that she has documented, many of them are new to science. Without the super lens of Linda’s camera, in person the creatures look mostly white and sometimes a little pink. I was most interested in experiencing this world in person because a photograph or video of these creatures always has a frame. I was so curious to see what it would be like to experience them in the vast abyss of the ocean. Turns out the light became a new framing limitation. We just aren’t designed to be there. taken in New York, New York by @lmcmansion
2
a month ago
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36”x38” Oil on Canvas, 2026 Siphonophores are some of the strangest and most beautiful animals in the ocean. At first glance, they look like a single organism, but they are actually colonies made up of many specialized individuals called zooids. Each zooid has a specific job. Some are responsible for feeding, some for reproduction, some for movement, and others for defense. Rather than functioning as independent animals, these tiny individuals are so specialized that they depend on one another to survive. Together, they operate almost like a single body. The most famous siphonophore is probably the Portuguese man o’ war, but there are hundreds of other species, many of which live far below the surface. Some are only a few centimeters long, while others can stretch for dozens of meters. Siphonophores are especially fascinating in the deep sea, where they use bioluminescence to communicate, attract prey, or deter predators. Some species form long, delicate chains or elaborate branching structures that look almost impossible. They challenge our idea of what an individual animal can be. A siphonophore is not quite one animal, and not quite many. It is a colony whose members have evolved to function together as one remarkable organism! taken in New York, New York by @lmcmansion
4
2 months ago
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24”x36” Oil on Canvas, 2026 When I originally painted this I was inspired crustaceans in their larval phase, with their hits of warm colors in the black abyss. However I couldn’t help but compare this to the anemone I saw in the Red Sea a few weeks ago. The video of the clownfish is completely unedited, it was truly glowing. I am so captivated by the contrast between the blue and the warm colors. taken in Red Sea Egypt by @lmcmansion
6
2 months ago
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I love these mesmerizing minnows that were everywhere in the Red Sea 🌊 So cute. Their collective movements are something I have been curious about in my practice. How can thousands of fish turn, accelerate, and change direction seemingly all at once? The answer is emergence. Emergence happens when complex, coordinated behavior arises from many individuals following simple local rules, without a leader directing the group. In a school of fish, each fish primarily responds to the fish immediately around it. It adjusts its speed and direction based on a few things: stay close to the group, avoid collisions, and align with nearby fish. No single fish knows what the entire school is going to do. Yet when thousands of individuals follow these simple rules simultaneously, something much more complex appears: the school behaves almost like a single organism. A sudden movement can begin with just a few fish. Their neighbors respond, those neighbors respond to others, and the change propagates through the school in a fraction of a second. The remarkable part is that the collective behavior exists at a level beyond any individual fish. There is no conductor. No master plan. Just thousands of tiny decisions interacting with one another and producing something far more sophisticated than the sum of its parts. taken in Makadi Bay, Egypt by @lmcmansion
17
2 months ago
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24”x48”, oil on canvas, 2026 When I created this I was initially thinking about ctenophores, but when I arrived in Egypt and saw the turquoise of the sand and the reef showing through the dark blue of the sea, it looked so similar to what I had been making back in the studio where wiping way Prussian blues would reveal a cobalt teals. Here are aerial shots I have taken over the years of various reefs and shorelines. The way that turquoise shows up along shorelines is endlessly captivating to me. The forms are inspired by the deep but the colors from the transition from dark to light, land to sea, know to unknown. The Red Sea in Egypt, near Jiftun Island 2026 Over the bay islands in Honduras 2015 Miners castle on Lake Superior in Munising Michigan 2021 Swirling boats on Capri 2022 This summer in Egypt, 2026 Oahu 2017 Bay islands 2015 Kauai 2017 taken in New York, New York by @lmcmansion
6
2 months ago
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So grateful to have returned from diving and to have three uninterrupted weeks to retreat into the studio, immerse myself in the work and create. Why so blue? As red and yellow drift deeper beneath the surface of the ocean, their bright colors slowly begin to disappear. To our eyes, the underwater world can seem like a place where colors are swallowed by darkness. This happens because of the way light travels through water and how different wavelengths are absorbed. Sunlight contains all the colors of the visible spectrum, but water does not allow every color to travel equally far. Red light has a longer wavelength and is absorbed very quickly by water. As depth increases, red objects lose their brightness and may eventually appear dark, gray, or almost black. Yellow light has a shorter wavelength than red, so it can travel farther. However, it is also gradually absorbed as the water becomes deeper. This means that a yellow object may remain visible after red has already disappeared, but eventually yellow will fade too. The science behind this is called light absorption. Water molecules absorb certain wavelengths of light more strongly than others. The deeper light travels, the more opportunities there are for those wavelengths to be absorbed. Suspended particles can also scatter light, making the water appear blue or green. I love to watch the colors change on descent. Swipe to the end to see a video comparison of light at the surface and light at depth 🦈🪼💙🫧💧 taken in Greenpoint, Brooklyn by @lmcmansion
50
2 months ago
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Sold. Dragonfish Mouth, Oil on Canvas, 24”x 36”, 2026 One of my favorites so far, glad it is happily in its forever home upstate 💙 Sardine bait ball in Baja California Sur. I filmed this in 2021 In the studio with Prussian Blue 🪼💙🦋 taken in New York, New York by @lmcmansion
11
2 months ago
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It will come as a surprise to no one that Floridians are the same below the water as they are above. They seem to carry knives more than any other population of divers I’ve met, and they are extremely independent. I found out this summer that, for quite a few of them, that means they dive alone. This goes against one of the first principles of recreational diving: always dive with a buddy. For the first time in 14 years, I found myself alone underwater, calmly drifting in the blue during my safety stop, and again while exploring the Blue Heron Bridge. I got a taste of that sweet Florida freedom, and I was surprised by the impact it had. I think Blue Heron Bridge was the happiest dive I’ve ever had. 130 minutes of pure joy. Perhaps the longest dive I’ve ever done. Being alone underwater was something I had feared for so long. This helped me gain confidence in myself and my training, and gave me a sense of peace with my subsequent buddies, knowing I can remain calm under any circumstance. Is this a new lifestyle? No. Do I recommend it? Also no. But when in Rome, I did as the Romans do taken in West Palm Beach , Florida by @lmcmansion
4
2 months ago
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