Artist Statement
I’ve been many things in a long life but a single theme threads through it all — water.
I grew up around boats and boatyards. For 15 years I was a professional sailor. I’ve sailed across the Pacific Ocean numerous times. I’ve sailed the length of both coasts, California to Washington, Florida to Maine. I’ve been a sailing instructor on the San Francisco Bay, a yacht captain in Palm Beach, a dive boat captain in Key Largo, and a tow boat captain in Fort Lauderdale. Now I live on the shore of Chocowinity Bay with my wife of 30 years and two Portuguese water dogs.
The eastern edge of North Carolina is a land of water and it’s water that fascinates me, water above and water below, the slow beat of backwaters, blackwater rivers flowing languidly beneath green canopies, swamps with cypress trees older than Christianity, and the wide reach of estuaries and sounds bright as brass polished by the sun.
Most of my photographs are taken from the water’s perspective. A few feet above actually, from a folding kayak.
If there’s a tagline for my work, it’s water and light.
EMAIL: charles.thrasher@centropic.com