Ablutions is a meditative series of watercolor and ink works created in the wake of personal loss. Through fluid abstraction, the series explores water as both material and metaphor—an element of mourning, memory, and release.
Each composition captures a quiet gesture, a moment suspended between grief and grace. Pigments flow, pool, and separate—mirroring the emotional terrain of healing and transformation.
This body of work invites the viewer into a contemplative space. Not to interpret, but to feel.
⸻
Visual Language:
Ink and watercolor interact in unpredictable ways—staining, blooming, and diffusing across the paper. These marks are intentional yet unforced, guided by the principle of release over control.
⸻
Series Titles:
Awash. Awake. Afloat. Abreast. Adrift. Aloft.
Each title reflects a stage of emotional navigation—part of the artist’s evolving conversation with loss and resilience.
⸻
Documentation:
Parts of the process were documented through still photography and short videos. These behind-the-scenes moments offer a glimpse into the physical rhythm of the work—the tension between precision and surrender
Materials:
• Cold press watercolor paper
• Watercolor pigments
• India ink and alcohol-based inks
• Natural brushes and spray bottles
• Salt, sponges, and gravity as tools for texture and flow
Techniques:
• Wet-on-wet washes to evoke depth and emotional diffusion
• Layered drying cycles to build organic contrast
• Use of motion—tilting, dripping, and air—to surrender control
• Repeated engagement with the same sheet, allowing time to intervene
⸻
Process
This series was created over several months in an intimate studio setting. The approach was intuitive—anchored in silence, repetition, and breath.
⸻
Artist Statement:
“I turned to water when language wasn’t enough. These works are fragments of that silence, painted slowly, one layer at a time.”
— Papi Wata
"Adrift" - A surrender. Letting go of the need to steer. Adrift embraces the current—its uncertainty, its openness, its grace.
"Afloat" - Here, movement returns. There is no rush, only the gentle buoyancy of staying present. Afloat honors the slow act of survival.
"Abreast" - To move forward while holding the past. This piece holds tension and balance, acknowledging both pain and persistence.
"Awash" - A beginning. Grief arrives not with noise, but with stillness. This piece captures the moment of first immersion—soft, weightless, suspended.
"Awake" - Clarity begins to form within the fog. Awake reflects a quiet shift—when emotion takes shape and memory sharpens in the water.
