Clay and oxide, 25x14x7 inches, 15 pounds, 2006.

This piece was inspired by lines from William Cowper's "The Castaway".

"We perished, each alone;
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in deeper gulfs than he."

In the poem, Cowper illuminates the guilt and grief of the person who survives another, as well as the universal nature of death, and the loneliness of death to each individual.

For this piece, I drew upon my experience of sailing a tall ship off the coast of New England and Novia Scotia. There is no isolation more complete than the isolation of the sea. On dawn watch, far from shore, you can see no light except the bow light of your ship and the stars. There is a 360 degree view of flat, empty horizon, and the sound of the seas.

The shape of this sculpture is the shape of a wave, a sail, or the whale teeth sailors used to carve in their spare hours. Each of the figures carved into the piece in drowning in lonely, communal isolation, unable to save himself, or anyone else.