CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/1/2014

Mathemysticism in John Severson's SURF

Featured image, of freediver, acid prose writer and "mathemystician" Jim Loomis out of Haleakala, 1972, is reproduced from John Severson's SURF. "A friend introduced me to James Cook Loomis, who introduced me to macadamia nut pancakes. Afterwards we took a drive along the south shore, playing ukes and singing harmony. Jim, equipped with a brilliant and entertaining mind, would become a lifelong friend. Forty years later, we still meet for breakfasts… Jim was a dropout math teacher from California, dedicated to exploring simpler and richer forms of life, tree-house living, and less work. He lived in a canvas tree house, suspended over a waterfall. I painted Jim underwater communicating with the dolphins, and then with his girlfriend in the tree house amidst the tropic landscape and flora. He pushed me into my Island Dream period."