"The Secret Ocean," a series of large-scale photographs manipulated with charcoal and pastel, visually describe one woman's emotional journey through domestic abuse, sexual violence, marital manipulation, divorce, and finally independence.

 

While his beautiful and poetic landscapes bear an eery sense of something about to be destroyed by human intervention in nature, Sobye also captures universal love and power through his sensual depictions of women and children. A recurring theme in his artwork is the exposure of innocent children to discrimination, destruction, and disguise and how a mother's love can alter this exposure. About "The Secret Ocean"

Sobye writes, "Motherly love for your children will render you a hostage and become your enemies preferred instrument for torture." However, it is through this love that a woman is able to build independence and become a living illustration of what is unobtainable for her abuser's thwarted, barren mind.

 

Not only does "The Secret Ocean" depict the private world where abuse takes place and the suffocating feeling of being drown in despair and hopelessness, but it also presents a rise to the surface, an emotional state where the pattern of abuse is broken and the victim reclaims her power.