There appears to be a universal motion in the cosmos — a drift toward what we call disorder. As a maker, this reality creates a strange tension. Every mark I make will fade, yet something in me insists on making marks anyway. The metal I work with is oxidizing even as I shape it, but that oxidation becomes part of the work’s language. In my series “Compositions in Corrosion”, I attempt to interpret our struggle with time and chance, using experimental patination.

I stand in my studio and wonder if I should be making anything at all. Around me, sheets of metal wait to be shaped, chemicals promise new surface treatments, algorithms generate endless variations on my screen. But beneath the familiar materials lies an unfamiliar question: in a world already drowning in human output, what justifies adding more? This doubt arrives without warning, usually when I’m scrolling through image feeds or walking through art fairs.

I am working with oxidation when the system breaks down. For weeks I’ve been developing a patination formula—specific ratios of copper sulfate to ferric chloride, controlled application temperatures, documented exposure times. The systematic approach promises predictable surface transformations: measure precisely, record every variable, create the reproducible rust patterns that will work across all future pieces. But the metal keeps producing textures I didn’t program. The mixture that should yield uniform green oxidation instead creates unexpected crystalline formations.

I am composing this text when the investigation becomes its own subject. Wrestling with how to capture the recursive relationship between writing about creative processes and engaging in creative processes. Each sentence encounters resistance—the vast possibility space of language, the uncertainty of which direction to pursue, the collaboration with responses that generate unexpected insights I hadn’t anticipated. I notice that my essays about creative investigation follow the same pattern as the creative investigation they describe.