Common sea barnacles are one of the many different species falling victim to a phenomenon called ocean acidification. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the ocean has been absorbing nearly half of all fossil carbon released into the atmosphere. This absorbed carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid in the seawater, lowering the already alkaline pH level and changing the balance of carbonate and bicarbonate ions. The changing pH balance in the ocean is indicating a cause for alarm to organisms that depend on the presence of carbonate ions to build their shells, or other hard parts, out of calcium carbonate. This acidification is affecting the calcifying organisms, such as a common barnacle, and manifests in weakening and disintegrating their protective shells. I am exploring how ocean acidification may potentially effect the common barnacle over a number of years into the future.  The luminous and yielding quality of the encaustic is indicative of the softening and dissolving outer shell of the barnacle, and the fragile seed pods become representative of the vulnerable organism itself.  As the dissolution process progresses, more and more of the delicate animal are being laid bare. These materials aid in my search to imagine this creature as it is made dangerously open to any number of assaults such as predators, hindered growth and reproduction, and changes in ocean temperature.