14 x 14 x 10 inches

In Collaboration with Robert Bell, UW-Stevens Point Emeritus Faculty

Clay and acrylic paint

The goal of Diatom Decor is to welcome the microscopic aquatic community back into our modern lives. When viewed under a microscope, a drop of natural water will reveal diatoms, algae, and other organisms with dazzling forms and colors. My initial plan was to create functional- i.e. useful for human wants or desires- objects showcasing these organisms’ unique shapes. It wasn’t until I began to work the clay into an object with a mock Water Silk (Spyrogyra) design that I realized my error. These organisms are already busy doing their own work in the natural environment- they have no requirement to also work within the constraints of our tidy homes. As guests, they should be allowed to act as they do no matter how mysterious their functions seem.

When painting these representative clay figures, I chose to use iridescent paints to create a visual link to objects such as fine China dining wear. This creates a comparable feeling of high value while also referring to the silica dioxide (glass) shell of Diatoms. Green colors are easily recognizable from photosynthetic organisms, which include a range of bacteria species, in our water. The golden-brown color may immediately suggest precious metals. While true, it also is an ode to the carotenoid found in micro and macro algae called fucoxanthin.

Our lives as large, multicellular eukaryotic beings have led us to view unicellular and comparatively small organisms through an unflattering lens. For understandable reasons, bacteria, algae, parasites, and other miscreants of unseeable shapes must be removed from our public use water. Unfortunately, this action has unintentionally helped fuel shallow generalizations that all microscopic entities are “bad,” or only live in “dirty” water. In the process, the benefits of beneficial microscopic organisms have been thoroughly filtered out of our minds. I hope the creation of these sculptures will magnify the important roles our aquatic neighbors play in local and global communities.