Brian Swimme’s book Journey of the Universe was a great source of inspiration. In his book he talks about the stars being our ancestors. He talks about the origin of the universe 14 billion years ago when bright and dark matter combined in one single (trillions of degrees hot) point. Let me quote Brian Swimme:
"Star birth occurs when gravity squeezes a cloud of atoms together so tightly that nuclear fusion ignites in the centre. In this process hydrogen fuses into helium. This nuclear energy expands outwards and opposes gravity. Stars represent an amazingly creative balance between gravitational collapse and nuclear explosion. And as a star expands it creates all the elements (phosphorus, oxygen, carbon, gold, etc.) it’s by this stupendous process that we can say the stars are our ancestors. The carbon atoms of our body passed through an intense explosion of a star."
This process continues around us no matter how much we have damaged our planet. No matter what importance we give to ourselves as unique individuals, this process has been unfolding and will continue to unfold and expand the universe, self-organising matter into life. I was curious to imagine a world where subatomic matter and human representation become visible regardless of their difference in physical size. A kind of subatomic or, even better, quantum humanism where what we call life- or actual-size is suspended. Images of spontaneous human, plant and atom constellations without a scriptwriter.
This is the beauty of being a painter: that I can depict several contradictory representational systems simultaneously. Macro and micro. Self-organizing matter, humans and plants. While working in my studio, I am surrounded by plant models made for teaching botany in schools. One model which I have used in several paintings is that of a blossom of a dead nettle.