The natural world is the core of my work, as subject and as process. I research the ocean and climate change, and it is the knowledge of how these elements work that fuels my imagery. Working intuitively and in partnership with natural elements, I incorporate chance into the process of making the work. I draw with a hyper-saturated sea salt solution, and as the water evaporates, sea salt crystals grow in seemingly random patterns. Yet these patterns are not random. I work outdoors on large sea salt crystal installations. Many elements affect the color and form of the crystals growth: temperature, humidity, wind, clouds, the shadow of the driveway fence, and the angle of the sun. At 95 degrees at noon, the crystals form one way. At 95 degrees at 4 pm, the crystals form another. The endless combination of these variables make the sea salt crystals form into chance configurations that accurately record specific moments in time. Among other things, the sea salt crystals represent the metaphysical oceans, a thin skin on the surface of the planet covering 70% of the globe. Like skin, the oceans control the health of the natural world as we now know it. The ocean is currently absorbing the rising temperatures that landforms reflect. Without the ocean absorbing this heat, temperatures on land would be much higher, and climate change even more evident. Since I began working with the ocean in 2013, climate change is beginning to make itself known. Yet the ocean is protecting us from fully understanding its effects and the extinction cascade that is already underway, a hallmark of the Anthropocene. Nature follows its own set of rules. While we try to keep things the way we like, change is fundamental. Whether we want it or not, whether we see it or not, here it comes. The natural world is morphing into a world that is less tolerant of present life forms. My work symbolizes the energy of the oceans and the life forces undersea that are either adapting or disappearing.