I found three shark teeth today. The decay of the shark leaves behind its remnant just as the beauty of decay in the human construct reverting back to nature does. John Ruskin, in referring to the decay of buildings, wrote that “Rust is that ochreous stain that is living…” He was referring to how buildings crumble, yet stay alive in the remnant pigments they leave behind. For example, rust and its allies become the pigments we use for painting.

Kandi Barton Harper, a Florida artist, writes about how some artwork expresses the “fragility of all things.” When Ms. Harper considers my own thru-things series of art, she is inspired to think of “the creation, the manufacture, and…that brevity” of human-made constructs in light of nature’s own doings to them. The beauty of decay in a human construct that is ravaged by Mother Nature is not something lost, but something gained.