Aurora

Aurora
36” x 36”
Acrylic on Canvas
July 2023

This piece is a meditation on gravity, connection, and daring to hope.

The news can be so much, and so overwhelming that when I find new stories that take me to a mystical place they really tend to stick with me. This particular piece was all about gravitational waves travel through space, indicators of creation.

I found myself meditating on the idea that unbeknownst to me, matter floating through time, through space, older than my mind can conceive is so universal that it flows through every being on this planet.

Of course we are ignorant to this enormity. It made me think greatly about the subtle and the universality of connection. It made me also feel incredibly tiny. As a meat-based creature living on pale blue dot, I thought about each molecule, chromosome and genetic inheritance from my ancestors. I wondered about the relationship between us and the animals of the deep oceans. I wondered if they understood the gravitational waves far better than I did. Sometimes I feel as a human being that we are still trying to figure out how to live on this planet without absolutely blowing it up . Most other organisms have evolved past this and come into a state of equilibrium in a collaborative supportive reality.

The leaves in this piece are sacred fig leaves. The Buddha is said to have sat under these trees when he meditated and achieved enlightenment. So, across cultures, they are seen as symbols of spirituality, growth, and wisdom. Sometimes they are called bodhi trees, but I think of them as peepul in connection to my own origins.

As I painted this piece, I hoped that we would get it right, collectively.