Hydrogen on the Left (2015)
Watercolor on paper
20 x 28 inches

Hydrogen, atomic number: 1

The first thing we are usually introduced to in Biology 101 is nitrogen. The classic textbook illustration of the nitrogen cycle, where the sun is shining through the sky over a smoking volcano, lightning bolts streak from cumulous clouds and rain showers down on a farmer growing corn and pigs with a tractor. There’s a factory with smoke stacks producing atmospheric pollution, a body of water next to a forest, a bone-yard growing cacti and well, you get the picture, the cycle goes on.

So, why didn’t I ever see a Hydrogen cycle illustration of this life and death scenario? Was I sick, tardy or skipping that day? Picking daisies in left field? Hydrogen is at the epicenter of life. It’s the Lincoln Log of biology. It’s what makes Super Glue so super with its ability to link and bond to almost anything. It’s the way I think of life when I’m drawing or painting. Not in the sense of My Life but rather in how things work on a micro-biological level. I’m obsessed with hydrogen’s presence in water chemistry and it’s often a welcome distraction from work; a distraction that often inspires more work.

You can see this on the left-hand side of my painting. I’m chasing hydrogen, trying to know it and learn from its presence in the water. The plant growing is a sweet potato and the reason it can grow like that (suspended in water) is because of hydrogen’s ability to form ionic compounds. This trait makes the suspension of nutrients in water easy and gives the chemical potential for life.

The term pH, stands for power of Hydrogen. We use this exponential measure of hydrogen’s concentration in a solution to determine how basic or acidic it is. This determines not only what can survive but also exactly how and how quickly biology shifts in the dynamic of life. It’s impossible to say that any one element is more important than another, but let’s just say I find the first one most fascinating.