Drowned

Grigory Gurevich, "DROWNED", oil on pressed board.
This painting I started in 2007, worked for a while and dropped for
9 years. About 6 days ago I found time to finish it. One of my x-students brought to me this frame as a
gift in appreciation for the oil painting I did of his 15 years old daughter.
In 2007 I curated big
exhibition in CANCO LOFTS in Jersey City and painted on a pressed big painting for the lobby, but did not like it. I cut part of this board to fit the
size of a frame, still not knowing exactly what I will paint on it. I salvaged the signature and some layers of paint that remained
underneath of previous work.
Here is a story of a girl who drowned in Black Sea.
It is a real story happened in Yalta on a Black Sea.
It was beautiful, hot, sunny day.There
is no winter there. People are coming here from all parts of Russia to relax and to unwind, to get a sun tan and to make new friends. A sandy beach side surrounds a deep turquoise color of warm and inviting water to swim. My friends and I came from Leningrad during our school break and my mother accommodated us on a mattress she dropped on the floor. When you are 15 years old there is no difference in being comfortable in a bed or sleeping on the floor. The beach invites you
early in the morning. Before sun goes down, you crash your body anywhere you can and soon disconnect your mind. You are dead from
exhaustion until sunrise wakes you and a blue warm giant swallows you again. Every day is typically the same, pleasant and enjoyable. But
this particular day was very different from all days I had experienced in my life.
Here, my friends and I decided to go away from all tourists and local swimmers to play a "tag" game. No one was around so we could see each other better. We drifted further and further away from the beach and people who were lying and swimming in the shallow waters. About half an hour later, I noticed something light pretty far from the surface
of the water. At first, I suspected that it was a piece of paper. I decided to stop and take a closer look of what was under me, somewhere on the bottom of the sea. It didn't take long to figure out that it
was a woman. But what she was doing there was difficult to figure out.
I shared my concerns with my friends but they were busy catching each other. I went deeper down to see what was happening. I thought
someone was collecting starfish, hunting or getting shells. I recognized a blue swimming cap, which girls usually use to keep their hair in tact. If she was drowning, time was crucial. I could see from
here this was not a hunter. So, I went closer to her.
There was a girl in a half sitting position with big air bobbles coming from her mouth. She
was unconscious. I immediately rushed up and screamed to my friends to swim down to the bottom of the sea to bring her up to
the surface. They quickly came to help me.Her mouth exhorted only air dust and her body went closer and closer to the ground. At this time foamy bubble trail was coming from her
mouth.
Her helpless body went closer and closer to the ground. At any moment she would rest at the bottom of the sea and it would be too late to revive her. One of my friends grabbed her under her waist and the other for her legs. I was holding
her under her arms. When we felt the ground close to shore, I lifted her white-blue heavy body and carried her in my arms to the beach. As loud as I could, I screamed, "please someone help me to revive this
girl! She drowned and need immediate help!!!! Please come here to help!". I guess my voice was not loud enough, because no one reacted
on my requests. Time was crucial in this situation and I started to panic. I almost lost all hope when someone finally started to point in a tent which was realy not far from where I was with the girl in my hands. She was so heavy, I was afraid I would not be able to carry her to the medical tent. Her lips were completely blue, but air dust was
still slowly appearing in front of her lips.
Finally, someone came out from the tent. I was so
exhausted from carrying her and still in shock. I had only one thought on my mind: Was she alive or dead? A guy, about 19 years old came
over to me and asked, "who brought this girl to the tent?". I told him
that my friends and I pulled her up from the bottom of the ocean. He sarcastically looked at me like I was lying to him. Someone slightly opened the door of the tent. There, the girl was. sitting on the chair with open eyes.
I was relieved, but terribly exhausted from what had just happened. My stomach was empty, but I was not hungry. A few days after, a local
newspaper had written an article about this girl. My name and my friends names were not mentioned.
She was sixteen and came here to the beach on a bus with her grandmother. According to the
article she choked on a gulp of seawater she swallowed and was unable to fight the nature or call for help.
Much later, when I was leading a pantomime company, I staged pantomime "Man and the Sea”, using her movement as a drowning man and now
illustrated what I saw in my painting, "Drowned".
For a dramatic effect I added the shark.
Grigory Gurevich, copy right October 12, 2016.