"Baziotes is unique in that the spatial organization of the whole painting implies a dense medium, like water, as well as evoking reminiscences of particular organisms. This kind of space becomes scenically expansive in 1952. developing after paintings of 1950 in which marine life is one term in an ambiguous image. Examples of this phase are 'Dying Bird' and 'Flight', in which bird forms are generalized to the point at which they imply a seal or a slug...Baziotes' color is as bland and shifting as light in topaz or opal, converting the motion of the sea to a Medusan calm. His art paradoxically evokes both the amniotic waters and the impassivity of the mineral world."