ROKU & TANZA: The story behind the story
The rich tale (or tail if you want to lace it with the pun—for this is truly what has given me momentum to move through a sea of artistry this past year!) started way long ago back in 1993 when I first saw the movie Free Willy. I was 6 years old at the time and that movie cemented the current nostalgia I still have to this day surrounding my love for orcas and one of Han’s Christen Andersen’s greatest works “The Little Mermaid.” I was mesmerized by the sleek simple beauty and unique aesthetics of this great creature. Not to mention the emotional intelligence of it, which I would come to appreciate more as I got older and matured, learning and appreciating what made the orca stand out amongst the others in the Animal Kingdom. That movie also solidified my roots as a PNW girl: I was living just north of Seattle in the idyllic small town of Mukilteo at the time, the first half of my childhood (1989-1996). The town is somewhat built up but remnants still remain: I still cruise by the first 7/11 that formed in my memory and the Albertsons we always used to shop at is still there, too. My parents built a huge house on a cliff overlooking Whidbey Island across the Puget Sound. When I saw Free Willy, I imagined Keiko roaming those waters—after he was set free by Jesse! I returned to Seattle in 2016 to live after my family moved to Colorado in 1996. The return to that part of the country flooded my my life with childhood memories of what orcas meant to me.
INSPIRATIONS
Life on a commercial salmon fishing boat shaped who I am today and what inspires my art path.
Read more about my childhood growing up as an Alaskan fisherman’s daughter!
Seward, Alaska 2020 | With my Nephew Roku watching my dad’s boat F/V Memry Anne make its first splash in the harbor to start the fishing season.
Books
“Killing Keiko: The True Story of Free Willy’s Return to the Wild”: by Mark A Simmons who joined the months-long mission of getting Keiko prepped for the ocean. I highly recommend this book!
“Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator” by Jason M Colby. I watched one of his talks at Seattle Aquarium in 2019–this book was a labor of love and one can feel that when reading it.
Art Wolfe coffee table books –I recall in the late 90s flipping through one of his books and this one image of an orca was so mesmerizing (beaching themselves in Patagonia to grab a seal). This is an example of a powerful irony in the animal kingdom: risking death in order to survive.
“Black Fish”: Although not as objective of the pure definition of documentary would have it, brought me back to my Seattle days where the first orcas were captured. The dark story of Shamu and his trainer of 10 years, Dawn, brought tears to my eyes. From gut wrenching to heart warming: the complexity of the situation of whales in captivity hit me at a visceral level.
Desolation Sound yacht trips
To supplement my art income, I have been a freelance yacht stewardess since 2012! I made a ton of friends in the yachting community including a fellow South African yacht stewardess named Tanza for which my teenage mermaid in the book is named after! Tanza just sounds like the female version of Tarzan: a carefree and adventurous lone ranger—but she’s under the sea! On that note, my beloved 3yr old nephew named Roku inspired my baby whale name. When I moved to Seattle in 2016 I continued my yacht ventures every summer and the private yachts I worked on would go up to this magestical land called Desolation Sound. This place, located between Vancouver Island and lower British Columbia is a West coast yachter’s paradise. Read more about my adventures as a yacht stewardess in British Columbia here!
UNPRECEDENTED. My @whitneylanderson_art drawing from Summer 2018 while I was yachting IN Desolation Sound—the area where this occurred. This picture depicts the labor of J35 Tahlequah carrying her deceased newborn daughter for 17 days, roughly 1,000 miles, from the Salish Sea, to the open ocean, and back. I wrote a poem about this in the wake of one of the most heartfelt travesties I have witnessed within the animal kingdom 🖤...................................................................................
“Before I let you go”
I will make the memories we never had.
Before I let you go, let me just imagine one more breath.
Before I let you go, I wonder where the current will take you.
The tides will rise and fall but my love for you will never sigh:
now every time I come up for air I’ll cherish it as my first and last—the one and only you ever had.
🖤....................................................................................
Only an orca could show such brazen defiance, such melancholic denial—almost usurpation of how a human would mourn—in the loss of their kin. Not only are orcas my favorite animal, this case sheds light on my own species that is aborting their own without conscious right now. LIFE inside the womb = LIFE outside the womb. This case of an orca and her baby has been emotionally arresting to me on so many levels. #OrcasAreEverything #LifeIsPrecious #whitneylanderson
There is no mild enthusiasm I have for whales—its full on, black and white . I have pure LOVE for these creatures and the mystical mermaid that is integral to bringing out the fanciful side of my storyline. This is a book that both child and parent will enjoy!
