This is one of my drawings that was actually published!!! Paddler magazine was, at one point, a locally published magazine called "River Runner". A guy published it out of Prineville. If you have been there, you would realize how out of context that is. The place is all cowboys!!! How a whitewater publication started there is beyond me...

Anyway, I like this one because it has a sort of Pinnochio-esque quality to it. The sea monster, "Il Monstro", is silently creeping up on the unwary boaters. I have done some paddling in the ocean, even though mostly in protected areas, and my imagination goes wild, and I start looking for giant dorsal fins of that great white shark that I know is lurking just below the surface of the water. I get that feeling even more when I am surfing. If my buddies have all caught waves and are inside paddling out, I tend to suddenly need to pull my feet up on the board, and I start looking nervously in all directions. The ocean can be a very scary place.