Water, Water

This is not a painting of a tap — it is a declaration. Chris Adessa seizes a single, weathered water faucet and elevates it to monument, commanding the full 24 x 24 inches of panel with the authority of a Renaissance portrait. Every curve of the cross-handle, every threaded ridge at the spout's tip, every shadow pooling in the joint between pipe and body is rendered with meticulous, almost obsessive precision in a finely calibrated monochrome palette. The result is arresting: a humble object that suddenly radiates weight, history, and urgency. Painted in oil from her Sausalito studio overlooking the San Francisco Bay, Adessa titles the work after Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' — water all around, and yet none to drink. In a region that lives with drought, surrounded by the glittering Bay, that irony cuts deep. This is climate commentary delivered not through protest but through quiet, devastating beauty. Collectors who acquired Adessa's Everyday Sacred works early have watched them enter the permanent collections of UCSF Hospital and Jane Goodall — this is a series with proven institutional recognition and growing demand. Hanging this piece is an act of intention. It invites every viewer to pause and reckon with what is ordinary, what is precious, and how thin the line between them has become. Bold, timely, and technically masterful, this is a work that will anchor any serious contemporary collection.