Dennis Sopczynski
My daylight: the swimming pool
Lane 1: MY STORY
In John Cheever’s short story “The Swimmer” Neddy Merrill, the title character embarks upon an unconventional journey to swim across a rural and affluent Connecticut county to reach his destination (his home). The majority of Merrill’s swims during his odyssey take place in the backyard pools of former acquaintances, business partners, lovers and neighbors. At each of the pools he is greeted with a mixture of reactions to his unexpected appearance and from his announced intentions to swim his way across the county. Neddy Merrill’s protracted interaction with people and pools is unevenly split between his relationship with the water and his encounters with the owners of the various pools he swam in. Filled with symbolism each of Neddy Merrill’s swims serves as a metaphor for reliving past events in his life—and as a possible prologue to his future. A modern day barefooted Orpheus clad only in a bathing suit Neddy Merrill reaches his destination.
Loosely adopting the role of Neddy Merrill, based upon my collective swimming experiences and from a purely experimental base I began in 2001 to visually translate my accumulative swimming experiences through the creation of these drawings and photographs. Supported by excerpts from my swimming journals, forty-two swimming pools are represented in my portfolio of 700+ swimming pool drawings and photographs combined.
The drawings take into account mathematics, the concept of “journey”, the ambiguity of the water environment, symbolism and spiritualism, balance and symmetry, physical and emotional transitions, mysticism and metaphor. Contributing to the design and composition of the drawings are subtleties in pool design variations from one location to another, time of day, weather and water conditions, my swimming routines and sets and with a personally subjective degree my general state of mental and physical preparedness.
The images have a voice for which I am the catalyst. From various public pool designs and their adjacent dressing room interiors and general atmosphere my reliance upon these spaces brings the viewer to a public space I see as private, intimate, magical, transformative and reflective. Admittedly, there are moments when the pool is the proper elixir for survival. It is precisely those moments when the swimming pool becomes my essential light of the day. This, is what a swimming pool to me embodies.
With these images, prestige and glamour and its associative swimming-as-competitive sport are rendered insignificant. The images are coded with numerous references to survival and daily challenges. In my life swimming and drawing are the inseparable silver lining pair to a dark cloud called depression. The artistic recognition, patronage and accolades these drawings represent is miniscule. And sometimes I need to remind myself of the differences between that macro part of their story and the micro part. There is the pebble-like texture of the water’s surface on an outdoor 50m pool caused by a light rain falling on an early January morning. And the sunlight’s reflections bouncing up from the bottom of the pool. And the tiles on the bottom of the pool are functioning as a compass. It is more than the tactile nature of the experience. Pure and reductive is my goal. Through my filtered lens the story is more of mine than that of the pool’s. The pool and I agree to embrace and share each other.
Lane 2: A SELECTION OF SMALL SCALE DRAWINGS
These drawings were executed on 8.5×11” sheets of vellum. Colored pencil is the prime medium. There is an occasional
use of colored ink, micro-tip pen, crayon, graphite, paper collage, diluted coffee crystals, acrylic paint, photography and some technological hanky-panky on my end courtesy of my favorite applications.
Lane 3: A SELECTION OF LARGE SCALE DRAWINGS
These drawings were executed on 24×36” sheets of vellum. Colored pencil is the medium, except where noted.
Lane 4: M. I. NEDDY?, I. M.
In the fall of 2007 I did a reincarnation, California style of Neddy Merrill’s swimming odyssey. In the span of eight days
I drove 1173 miles from Burlingame to Pasadena. I completed 20 swims in 16 community pools. My goal was to spotlight the communal spirit of the neighborhood swimming pool. Pool side and other on-the-road conversations made that possible. Whereas Neddy crashed one backyard pool party, I succeeded in crashing a child’s birthday party at the Salinas Community Pool. The eight year old guest of honor said I was welcome to stay. The lifeguard staff saw my presence in a different light. In the spirit of John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charlie, I had a traveling companion, mascot—Buddy.
Lane 5: THE POOLS
Astoria Aquatic Center, Astoria, Oregon
Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford University
Bayside Joinville Pool, San Mateo
Betty Wright Swim Center, Palo Alto
Brisbane Community Pool
Burgess Memorial Pool, Menlo Park
Burlingame Aquatic Center
Campbell Community Center Pool
Capuchino High School, San Bruno
Clark Memorial Swim Center, Walnut Creek
College of San Mateo Health Center
Coronado Municipal Pool
De Anza College, Cupertino
Dolores Bengston Aquatic Center, Pleasanton
Eagle Park Pool, Mountain View
East Portland Indoor Pool, Portland, Oregon
Elkhart Health & Aquatics, Elkhart, Indiana
Fremont Hills Country Club, Los Altos Hills
George Haines International Swim Center, Santa Clara
Los Baños del Mar Pool, Santa Barbara
Lompoc Aquatic Center
Martin Luther King Jr. Pool, San Mateo
Montecito Heights Health Club, Santa Rosa
Monterey Sports Center
Morgan Hill Aquatic Center
Mt. Scott Community Pool, Portland, Oregon
Newport Aquatic Center, Newport, Oregon
Paul Nelson Aquatic Center, Santa Maria
Paso Robles Municipal Pool
Peninsula Jewish Community Center Pool, Foster City
Rengstorff Pool, Mountain View
Richmond Plunge
Rinconada Pool, Palo Alto
Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, Pasadena
San Jose State University
San Ramon Olympic Pool
Santa Clarita Aquatic Center
Simpkin’s Family Swim Center, Santa Cruz
SLO Swim Center, San Luis Obispo
Soda Aquatic Center, Campolindo High School, Moraga
Ventura Aquatic Center
YMCA, San Mateo
All pools are in California, except where noted
Lane 6: MY PROFILE
EDUCATION
B.A. Fine Arts, Indiana University at South Bend
M.F.A. Visual Communications, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia
CURRENT
Adjunct professor, Digital Art Industrial Design, Ohlone College, Fremont, California
RECENT EXHIBITION HISTORY
2019 Rinconada Library, Palo Alto
2020/21 Open, group exhibition deYoung Museum of Art, San Francisco
2022 Restart, group exhibition, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto
MUSES
David Byrne
Richard Diebenkorn
Gee’s Bend Quilters
Philip Guston
David Hockney
Agnes Martin
John Mellencamp
Joni Mitchell
Ad Reinhardt
Patti Smith
Wayne Thiebaud
Vincent van Gogh
Harold Zisla
THANK YOUs
Judy, Muffin and Peter
Lane 7: IN THEIR OWN WORDS
“In a culture that’s so much about the individual, and the self, and my rights, to find a parallel thing that is really about giving, losing yourself and surrendering to something bigger is kind of extraordinary. And you realize, ‘Oh, this is what a lot of the world is about — surrendering to something spiritual, or community or music or dance, and letting go of yourself as an individual. You get a real reward when that happens. It’s a real ecstatic, transcendent feeling.”
DAVID BYRNE
“No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river and he is not the same man.”
HERACLITUS
“Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.”
PAUL KALANITHI
“Create an environment where you’re free to express what you’re afraid to express.”
RICK RUBIN
“We seek the smallest of oracles: what fate offers, how everything connects. Turning each card, I find assurance as well as intense challenges and the stamina and discipline to face them.”
PATTI SMITH
“… there is a purity, a dignity, a loveliness, an affirmation of life in most art when the artist is candid, convincing and competent.”
HAROLD ZISLA
Lane 8: CONTACT
Dennis Sopczynski
424 Turner Terrace #1
San Mateo, CA 94401
Except for the Lane 7 quotes and the John Cheever references, all aspects of this website including the images, text and website design aesthetic were all authored by me—Dennis. The technical component was channeled from the various tools and resources provided by WordPress. com.. No portion of this website may be used or reproduced in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical without direct written permission from the designer of this website. ©Copyright, 2023, Dennis Sopczynski
AS IN LIFE, THIS WEBSITE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. I’D LIKE TO THINK IT HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE AND IDIOSYNCRATIC PULSE. THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY WEBSITE.—DS