Tom Mason Artist

(As danced by Mr. Chase Finlay - NYC Ballet)

A couple of years ago, my friend, Steve LaCava, and I were coming into the marina at Oyster Bay. It was late winter, early spring. The water was still very cold. A man was paddling out to his mooring in a small dinghy. Something happened to cause him to capsize. He had on a lot of clothes which weighed him down. The cold water paralyzed him quickly. My friend and I got to him in time and fished him out of the water with great difficulty. We managed to get him up onto the dock and called the rescue squad to take him away. He survived. We never heard from him again. This incident festered in my mind to do something with it as a painting. Art history is rich with depictions of the Disposition of Christ from the cross and the Entombment if Christ. I felt compelled to do my spin on those but with the element of the personal. This painting, Salvation, is the result. The figure on the left of the painting is Steve LaCava. The figure on the right is me.