The need to be in harmony with the world is important and immediate, but it is also a need I like to play with. Like laughing at death, even serious subjects are best taken in a light-hearted way. The paint on the piece—dark with splashes of blue watery color atop the industrial elements—reinforces this idea, attempts to brings all of these ideas together as if to say, “Everything can be good and beautiful if it can be put together in the right way.”

Finally, stance and scale are important. Porpoise Song is large enough to confront without being overbearing. Like a guardian, it presents itself to the viewer asking to be contemplated, even insisting, but the message is one of beauty and peace.

Mark Washburn 2003