This painting is a reaction to the news that the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has increased to an area of about 6,300 square miles. This zone of low to no oxygen is unable to support most marine life, hence my use of the color black to symbolize death or mourning. The Medusa serpent-like forms are abstractions of sea anemones struggling to survive in a hypoxic ocean. Their abstraction creates a space for the viewer to conjure a reality of subject and to then imagine an outcome or to be moved into action for change. I see the Medusa serpents as symbols of both death and transformation, specifically to changing how we treat the planet.