2012
2012
Immersed in a sea of stars, a human body is forming from the inside out -- energy, light, nerves | bone, sinew, muscle -- all "wet" within the womb. Suddenly, from within the pineal gland, the spark of consciousness flickers to life.
Many of my projects over the years have required the use of high-resolution images of space (many of which are free to download here). Looking through this incredible database, I found myself time and again amazed at how these relatively distant cosmic events resemble such vastly different forms in our own lives.
When I first saw this image, all I could see was a fetus.
I had recently read Mario Livio's "The Golden Ratio" and when my daughter and I weren't listening to courses on Greek mythology in our car rides, we were talking about phi.
It's incredible how patterns in nature resemble each other in such vastly different expressions, not to mention having tools that allow us to look back in time and witness inconceivably distant galactic collisions.
The birth of the universe seem to be inherently expressed in these Antennae Galaxies.
A great starting point.
STARTING POINT
Early sketches and journaling... "2.15.2009 the nebulae womb is the beginning of time."
Inspired by the incredible, pioneering in-utero photography by Lennart Nillson.
The foot piercing through the contours of the confining wall is an homage to Dali’s “Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man.”
PROGRESSION
I combed through NASA's image gallery to identify shapes within distant galaxies that resemble body parts, concepts like the mind, etc.
I then combined photos of my newborn daughter with photos of organs and meat -- recreating her entire body to be revealed under transparent skin.
The translucent aesthetics of deep-water creatures aligned with how I imagined a potential intergalactic womb and umbilical cord might look.
Recreating images of my kids in utero by re-arranging photos of them is something I've enjoyed doing before.
This video shows parts of the process of creating the NEBULAIC EMBRYO (starting at 2:26) as well as Tartaros, Longing for Oranos, the Rebirth of Gaea logo, etc.
My daughter seeing herself as the Nebulaic Embryo for the first time. :)
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