Matt Orange Lattice Physalia

There is a definite link between the medium of glass and water. Both are liquids, both share the capacity to distort light, and the very creation of glass is dependent on the power of the earth's oceans to break down organic compounds. It was not just the obvious shared properties of glass and water that drew Stephen Dee Edwards' attention, but also his childhood along the Pacific coast of California.

"My intention," writes Stephen Edwards, "is not to imitate a particular sea creature, but rather to use the inherent qualities of the sea [which he lists as warm colors, eroded surfaces, and fluid motion] and its inhabitants as the basis for abstraction." This intention is carried out in Matt Orange Lattice Physalia, a highly colorful abstract based on a Portuguese Man-of-War. Edwards created a number of Physalia sculptures in the early nineteen eighties, and his work became well known for its fluid, almost choreographed, forms inspired by the beauty and bounty of the ocean. The serene top surface hides a busier underneath, a feature that mirrors the source of inspiration for this piece. Edwards gave his later sculptures a truly organic appearance by inserting a "vein-like pattern relating to an inner circulatory system." It is evident that this is a sea creature, but it is not a facsimile; it is a suggestion of the idea of a Physalia, rather than a true Physalia.