Water

Visualizing the Unseen

Water has held such a deep fascination for me that I have approached it differently in several bodies of work. Visualizing the Unseen developed out of my work in Synergy II, a two-year collaboration between the Art League of Rhode Island and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The project paired scientists with artists to create a “common language” using art to communicate the science.

My science partner was Noah Germolus, a Chemical Oceanographer in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program. The paintings explore Noah's research into ocean chemistry and metabolite availability in various zones of the ocean’s water column.

Through this collaboration, I learned about his work, his data collection zones, and abstract concepts behind the basic chemical elements of life. 

From art critic Don Wilkinson, The Standard Times: "[Stivison's] paintings seek to understand, on philosophical and aesthetic levels, the human meaning of these discoveries. While Germolus’s work is formulated with measurements and equations, Stivison’s labor comes to fruition with color and form. In a sense, Germolus’s science and Stivison’s art validate each other's work and strengthen an understanding in a way that even the unqualified support of peers in their respective fields can’t."

The result was four five-foot-wide paintings that visualize the unseen. Some of these works have been shown at University of Rhode Island's Providence Gallery, the Falmouth Art Center, and the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery at the University of Connecticut Avery Point. The works are the foundation of an upcoming solo exhibition with a sound installation, H2O: Windows and Mirrors.

Visualizing the Unseen:
a scientific investigation of ocean chemistry

  • Painting with hand written science notes beneath images of water

    Asking Questions 36x36, Acrylic on Canvas

  • Grey-blue-black painting with line drawings of seeds

    Searching for Answers, 36x36, Acrylic on Canvas

Coastal Surface: Communities

Oil over Acrylic on Canvas 48x60 inches

The collection zone represented here is coastal surface water off Cape Cod. It is active water, full of movement, rich with vibrant mixtures of both land-derived molecules and oceanic molecules. It is a "hot mess" of ever-changing mix of molecules, where nutrients are amplified by pollutants, pharmaceuticals, and other human activity.

Ocean Surface: Desert

Oil over Acrylic on Canvas 48x60 inches

The collection zone represented here is surface water far out from the coast of Bermuda. This is a place where we rarely find the interrelated communities of activities found in coastal surface water. Molecules get used up, break down, and bleached out in the relentless sunlight, creating a sense of an “ocean desert.” The imagery of waves and currents was actually drawn from microscopic images of bleached bones on a desert.

Deep Chlorophyll Maxim: Cycling

Oil over Acrylic on Canvas 48x60 inches

The collection zone represented here is the deep chlorophyll maxim (DCM), also called the subsurface chlorophyll maximum. This collection zone was in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Bermuda, below the surface of water in an area with the maximum concentration of chlorophyll. The artwork emphasizes the vertical migration, or movement of phytoplankton within the water column, which contributed to the establishment of the DCM due to the diversity of resources required by the phytoplankton.

Deep Ocean: Disintegration

Oil over Acrylic on Canvas 48x60 inches

The collection zone represented here is the Upper Mesopelagic in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Bermuda, deep below the surface of water beyond the reach of UV rays of sunlight. There is little or no chemical life activity and microscopic detritus drifts down. Rather than the active churning of the surface water, there is pressure and sideways movement as if driven by a massive conveyor belt.

Beneath the Surface

Beneath the Surface is a quadriptych that I completed just before beginning the Synergy II art and science collaboration. The four paintings developed from a combination of my interest in water and my interest in the sublime. Here, I used texture to suggest the “noise” and mystery beneath the ocean. I used water as a metaphor for “going deep” into a place in our mind-a place where we no can longer hear the barrage of news and jangle of daily minutia that assaults us. Instead, we float in the unknown mystery of our thoughts and memories, exploring places that can be dark and unsettling, or can fill us with new light.

This work has been exhibited at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, The University of Connecticut at Avery Point, and the Cape Cod Cultural Center.

Oil over Acrylic 36x110 inches

Water Surface Patterns

I began creating the water surface pattern series shortly after moving to coastal New England. I was fascinated by the reflections and patterns created by the coastal ocean surface and wanted to explore the different ways I could strip down shapes to simpler forms. I painted variations on these patterns, exploring how much I could change them and still have the viewer sense that the subject was surface water.

Ribbons of Water. Acrylic on Canvas. 18x24 inches

Water 1. Oil over Acrylic on Canvas. 16x20 inches

Water 4. Acrylic on Canvas. 20x24 inches

Heading Upstream. Acrylic on Canvas. 18x24 inches

Water 7. Acrylic on Canvas. 16x20 inches

Water 5. Acrylic on Canvas 16x20 inches

Water 6. Oil over Acrylic on Canvas 12x36 inches

Indian Space: Water 2. Acrylic on Canvas 12x36 inches

Water 3. Oil over Acrylic on Canvas. 24x24 inches

More About Water

Two short hand drawn cell phone videos about water

Washed Away

This video was shown in the international juried exhibition Perspectives 2021 and presented in CICA-Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, South Korea

“Washed Away” is a hand-drawn video utilizing very limited materials: two sheets of paper, charcoal, eraser, and a cell-phone. Its vertical format suggests a looking through a window, offering a hint of voyeurism. It speaks of human life, desires, and intertwines the many meanings of water— especially its life-giving and life-taking qualities. With 60% of our bodies composed of water, humans are water-based creatures. 70% of our planet's surface is covered water, and it is essential to our very existence. We develop into human form protected by the water in our mother's womb. Each night, we exhale water into the air around us. When we are overwhelmed by emotion, salty wet tears overflow our eyes. Water is used in our cleansing rituals and sacred ceremonies. And yet it also has the power to destroy out lives, and to wipe out villages and entire cities.


The drawings in this video recognize the small scale of a human life in comparison to the eternal power of water. The immeasurable forces of water existed long before humans ever walked the face of the earth. And the throbbing pulsing cycles of tides and waves will continue long after we are gone. The drawings speak of transitions to the eternal. We live for a moment, and then are gone, changed, and consumed to be formed anew.

Poetry of Water

This video was created for the Buzzards Bay Coalition, and premiered in their New Bedford, Massachusetts Education Space. s

“Poetry of Water” is a hand-drawn video created to remind residents of the pleasures of water in their community and world. The video presentation was accompanied by a handout of the same name, shown below