...there is no narration, no beginning, no end, no middle, just an indeterminate, floating form...




Somewhere at the bottom of the ocean, probably in the Pacific mass, is at least one molecule of water that is intact; that is, a molecule of water that has remained in generally the same deep 'place' as in it's creation and has not moved the inevitable cycle of other water molecules through rain, steam, human, tree, river, lake, cake, rat, bat, cat, and the like...


The water molecules present at creation have gone through many cataclysmic changes and have been many things in just as many forms and served as many functions.

There may still be one.


The detail presented here is the source of the title of the bowl form, that of Water. The water flows forth from the feminine, the giver of life. She also holds the moon above the water urn. A (repressed?) man tests the waters with one finger, breaking the surface tension, causing ripples in the impossible orientation of water, namely the front side of a wave. Drips, the vaguest of rainfall make their way into the dark water. Another form is the chemist's molecular diagram with +and - poles.The male figure on the right rests, dies, dreams of the wave, the motion, the force, is immersed in the deeper meanings of the movement of water, he has chosen his resting place.

Now, the above analysis was not apparent or used in the painting of the piece - the insight is merely hindsight - for the painting evolves in its natural way, one stroke leading to another, one form depending on the predecessor.

Water "7 x 95", 9.5x15.5x16.5, porcelain, 2006  Collection of Carnegie Museum of Art

Water "7 x 95", 9.5x15.5x16.5, porcelain, 2006

 Collection of Carnegie Museum of Art


Theoretical clay composition is known as Al2O32SiO22H2O -- that is, one alumina molecule to two silica molecules to two water molecules.  These water molecules comprise the 'chemical water' of clay or that which is chemically bound.  Process water (or the water used in the process of forming the clay) is considered the ‘free water'. Terra sigillata is a clay/water system used for painting ceramics and can also be described by this same formula(Al2O32SiO22H2O).  In the process of painting terra sigillata onto the clay surface of the vessel there is an intermingling and exchange between the surfaces and then an evaporation of the free water. In the fire, chemical and molecular changes occur to the clays.  The chemical water is fused between the two clays and a dissolving takes place making it difficult to distinguish between the clay body and the clay paint (terra sigillata).  The paint and surface become one. Alchemically speaking, "The matter is dissolved in its own water." The subject matter (or content of the painting) is likewise dissolved in its own water, literally and metaphorically.