"Fish Net" is a bronze/stainless steel sculpture of a Black Crowned Night Heron hunting from a swaying net which disappears into a stainless wave. The carelessly discarded net is caught on two lines hanging beneath an old dock. The tension in this piece is generated not only between the heron and it's unseen prey, but by the bird's own unwary proximity to entanglement and death. Human thoughtlessness has become a major component of this formerly pristine marine environment.

One of the challenges of this work was to create an illusion of the net disappearing underwater. This transparency was achieved by inlaying bronze into the steel in the wavery pattern of a net receding into the depths, and using a black patina to echo the marble base. Not only does this technique make the steel seem more water-like, it also emphasizes the hidden nature of this indiscriminate trap. The steel water shape has a brushed surface with polished edges, and a black marble base. Because the only bare metal is stainless steel, the sculpture is entirely maintenance free.

This piece was conceived as a statement about environmental pollution, a problem that will now be with us for thousands of years, even if all pollution ceased tomorrow. My daily bike ride takes me around a marina, then into a "restored" wetland. The amount of trash washed onto these shores is astounding to me, as is the fact that birds of all kinds seem to be increasing and maybe thriving in this combination salt marsh and dump. Thus the sculpture needed to imply unforeseen future events.

However, a good artwork must also have a pleasing composition, one that engages both the eye and the intellect. This is the reason I chose the tension of the hunting heron juxtaposed with it's own possible demise; the tension of the water flowing against and through the net; the tension of the bird balancing on this unstable perch. "Fish Net is a beautiful, well composed, jewel-like compressed environment that is not static in time.