What do you see?  what Do you see?  what do You see?   what do you See?

Oxygen is an enduring concept because of the purity and simplicity of its message, a tangible haiku, a parsimonious expression of the underlying common wellspring of Nature and Machine. Water (H2O) is one part oxygen, two parts hydrogen.  The iron oxide Fe2O3, in other words rust, is three parts oxygen, two parts iron. As the water splashes, it becomes aerated and additional oxygen dissolves within it, oxygen that bonds with iron to create rust. In time, water will erode the corroded panel completely, returning the Machine fully to Nature. The Oxygen concept lends itself to a wide range of scale, from small interior fountains to large outdoor installations.

This working maquette illustrates design elements of a large scalable installation. The concepts of “ascend” and “dance” combine in a freeform interweaving of aviation-oriented automobile hood ornaments, in which the spiraling tubing symbolizes contrails and aerobatics. Automotive design has yielded hundreds of exuberant winged aircraft and rocket-inspired hood ornaments; the full-scale version of Ascendance will incorporate many pristine examples flying above the cloudtops evoked by the sculptural shape and texture of the fountain’s reservoir and the movement of the water within.

     

Kiss me, Kate.  Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.  A legal kiss is never as good as a stolen one. A kiss is something you cannot give without taking and cannot take without giving.  I wasn’t kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth.  If you are ever in doubt as to whether or not you should kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of a doubt.  And the moonbeams kiss the sea.  Don't wait to know a girl better to kiss her; kiss her, and you'll know her better.

The Star Spangled Banner had its premiere on October 19th 1814 in Baltimore, together with the premiere of the theater play Count Benyowsky, about the life of my ancestor Moric Benyovszky—a Slovak born of a 700-year-old dynasty, he was a Polish freedom fighter at age 22, Siberian exilee at 23, prison escapee and boat thief at 25, Emperor of Madagascar at 29, French general at 31, American Revolution officer at 33, and close friend of Benjamin Franklin. 

Water is emotion. Water is life. The flag’s stripes bleed teardrops into the quiet reservoir of the human spirit—tears to nourish a rebirth of patriotic sentiment, of inward reflection and, eventually, gratitude for the joy of an open society. Tears shed are the somber payment exacted for our freedom and that of those for whom we lift the lamp.