Set in the ocean’s mesopelagic “twilight zone,” this painting examines jellyfish as both ancient survivors and emerging symbols of ecological disruption in a rapidly changing sea.

Twilight explores the extraordinary diversity of jellyfish inhabiting the mesopelagic zone, approximately 300 feet below the ocean’s surface. Appearing at first as a luminous constellation of drifting life, the composition gradually reveals deeper themes of imbalance and resilience.

Jellyfish—having survived over 500 million years of Earth’s shifting conditions—are now proliferating in response to human-driven changes: warming seas, plastic pollution, and habitat degradation. Species such as the Santa’s Hat Jelly and the bioluminescent Purple People Eater, once admired, are now labeled invasive, disrupting marine food webs and coastal ecosystems.

In the foreground, a rusted chain embedded in coral references how discarded human artifacts can destabilize fragile reef microbiomes. Amidst these tensions, the painting also honors extraordinary adaptations—from tiny crab larvae riding jellyfish for protection, to the Turritopsis dohrnii, or “immortal jellyfish,” capable of cellular rejuvenation.

Twilight invites both awe and reflection—on beauty, survival, and the shifting dynamics of life in the deep sea.

Special thanks to biologists Steven Haddock and Wyatt Patry (Monterey Bay Aquarium), Alexander Semenov (White Sea Biological Station, Moscow State University), and Bart Shepard (California Academy of Sciences) for their guidance in bringing this vision to life.

Species List:

• Torritopsis dohrnii, as far as we know it is the only immortal creature on this planet. When threatened, the “immortal jellyfish” can hit the reset button and revert back to the polyp stage to start its life all over again. The secret to an eternal life, is all about never maturing, staying young forever. This little jelly has also become an aggressive invader, hitchhiking all over the world on the ballasts of cargo ships, swarming the worlds oceans. 

• The two largest jellies in my jellyfish commission featured here are the Aequorea Jelly on the left, and the Purple People Eater Pelagia noctiluca on the right. The glowing deep sea Helmet Jellyfish Periphylla periphylla, uses bioluminescence to confuse predators. Apparently because of the unique bioluminescent attributes of this Aequorea jelly, scientists expect an entirely new generation of useful inquiries into bioimaging and biosensing.

• The rare Peppermint Angelfish Paracebtropyge boylei, found in the icy depths around the Cook Islands, is perhaps one of the smallest things in the world that is worth so much. Known as the ‘holy grail’ by some aquarium hobbyists, each fish can cost as much as $30,000.

• The little deep sea hydrozoan jellyfish are called Aglantha digitale, found in the White Sea.

• Santa’s Hat Jelly Periphylla periphylla

• Purple People Eater Pelagia noctuluca

• Immortal Jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii - Nutricula is a small jellyfish that transfers its cells back to childhood once it reaches adulthood.

• bobtail squid, several whip coral species, and fish