THE ORIGIN AND THE END

                                On The Edge Gouache on paper 34.5 x 53.5 cm 200

Last week I attended a BrisScience lecture. Here's their website where you can read more about BrisScience. The lecture 'The Origin and The End Of The Universe' was given by well kown theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, author and broadcaster Prof Paul Davies. It was an incredibly interesting evening. The hour flashed by as Prof Davies took us on a journey across the billions of years since the Big Bang, and the billions of years till the Big Rip or whatever BIG thing it will be that will see the demise of this Universe, and possibly the birth of a new one. Who knows! But, it was great fun to think and imagine as he talked, postulated, imagined, and presented current research.

The Long Room at Brisbane's Customs House was packed with standing room only. Such is the drawing power of Prof Davies.


Regular readers will know excactly why I attended the lecture. Yes, a fascination with the amazing perspectives cosmolgy provides. It can be daunting though. These both vast and intimate perspectives certainly place humanity and Earth, way out of and beyond, the centre of the Universe! Indeed where is the centre? Is there one? These perspectives tell us that we are relatively new to life in expanding space, and that our home, planet Earth, is destined for destruction in the prolonged death throes of our dying sun. Yet, the universe seems destined to death as well, but in death it may bring forth another universe...and life, of some kind, goes on?

                                                 All Of Us Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm

I am working on a new oil painting based on the small work on paper I wrote about in my last post All Of Us  [above] This small gouache painting 'talks' about history; past, present and future. Yet, as I have written before, if we are part of the 'cosmic dust' that somehow coalesced into the human form, a relatively short time ago in cosmic terms, then this 'dust' perhaps holds a kind of memory of the non human pre-existence. Do we somehow carry remnants of the nano-seconds after the Big Bang...like presumably everything else in the universe? Will this 'dust' survive the universe's entropic death to be released in the birth of a new one, ultimately creating another humankind...or not? In the state of foreverness, which I suspect is not about time or place, are we just a blip? These questions are humbling, but also exciting.

I will upload the new painting when it is finished, which should be fairly soon.

Cosmic Dust Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

INTERESTING

My Dad sent me this TED link. A colour blind young man who, with the assistance of technology, can hear colour. http://on.ted.com/Harbisson

I have nearly finished reading Dr. George Blair-West's fascinating book 'The Way Of The Quest'. I so look forward to reading a few chapters before going to sleep. Each chapter has gems of thought provoking elements.

And this is such a refreshing story: Remembering Herbert Vogel, The Postman Who Amassed One of America's Greatest Art Collections


Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/kabrimblecombe/videos

ALL OF US

All Of Us Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm

I have three stretched canvases ready to paint. I've prepared the initial layers of paint and ideas are tripping through my brain. I am going to start on one after I have written this post. And, it will be linked to this new work on paper, above, titled All Of Us.

Regular readers will immediately recognise my much loved age old transcultural/religious tree-of-life. Yes, it's the 'shadow' [seemingly] behind the two figures, one male and one female. This 'shadow' represents variously, all history, geneology, human race evolution.

Yet, the figures are ambigiously orientated. Are they looking into past history with their backs to the future? Are they looking forward to unwritten future history with their backs to the past? Are they able to see all past and future histories with abilities to view from multiple perspectives simultaneously? The latter is a sophisticated way of viewing the world and the universe. I believe, in the 21st century, that we are being invited [perhaps implored] to 'see' this way. I suggest being able to see multiple perspectives simultaneously will enable humankind to [re]ignite imagination, wonder and compassion, to reveal better questions, which ultimately will lead to better answers. These answers, may lead to more questions, but the result could go beyond sustainability of the planet [and humankind] to something more. 

NEWS

                                                   Cosmic Frisson Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

I have just sold Cosmic Frisson [above] to a new hospital! Very excited.

PLUS

• My entry for the $25,000 Mandorla Art Prize in Perth is a finalist. The award is announced 10 August. I will upload an image once the exhibition is live.My painting is called Birth of Knowledge.

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

GALACTIC HORIZONS

                                Galactic Horizons And beyond Oil on linen 85 x 150 cm

New discoveries in physics and cosmology are pushing our 'horizons' in all directions. The announcement this week of the discovery of the Higgs boson, has captured people's imaginations, taking possibility beyond previous limits. This quantum particle, propels the universal picture. Not only has the Higgs field been described as being like a superconductor, it is also transports imagination and ignites new questions.

My new painting Galactic Horizons And Beyond was started weeks ago, and as regular readers know, it fits within a 'cosmic' subtheme in my work. I have used my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life to create a 'scape', which may or may not be earth bound, but it is about life. It could be the edge of a galaxy, another planet, a grain of cosmic dust. It's up to you! Beyond, galaxies dance across a vast sky, some shifting closer and others receding.

As the universal [or maybe multiversal] world in which we live, reveals itself, I believe it becomes more evident that global and local perceptions are not enough. There needs to be more. There needs to be a cosmic perception too. One where we can see ourselves from the distant reaches of both the quantum and cosmic realms, where it becomes apparent that everything is connected. These perspectives could possibly... maybe more than likely... change how we view ourselves locally and globally, leading to new and more sustainable ways of living. We just have to imagine...the science invites us to!

IMAGINATIVE PLAY
Now I am going to have an imaginative play. I've been thinking about this Higgs field. Hey, what if it replicated the branches of trees? What if the field has variations, like there are many types of trees? If you think about the wind passing through the leaves of a tree, it passes differently according to the size, shape, etc of the leaves. I remember, in Goondiwindi, I planted a large garden. In it, I had a spinny of sheoaks. The wind whistled when it passed through the spinny of spiney long leaves. Yet, where I had mass planted eucalypts, the wind was not as restrained. It passed through more easily.

In September 2010 I wrote a post called 'Master Template'. In it I suggested that the tree may hold clues to the energy forces propelling the Universe and more. I wrote, I wonder if it holds the code to, what could be called, the master template. In my imagination I can 'see' how the tree, with its branches and roots, hints at the substance of the nano at the same time as hinting at the forces which propel the universal and vast. I wonder!!!!

SOME OTHER COSMIC POSTS

Auroboros
Cosmic Dust
Cosmology
Galaxial
Addicted To Surprise
Hovering


NEWS

• My entry for the $25,000 Mandorla Art Prize in Perth is a finalist. The award is announced 10 August. I will upload an image once the exhibition is live!

• Reminder that my painting $oils Aint $oils Anymore is a finalist in the SCOPE Galleries Art and Environment Award in Warrnambool. The exhibition has been extended until July 15.

• Also, my book FOR EVERYONE is moving along! Check it out HERE

• I will have 4 paintings in the Brisbane Grammar School Art Show which is held 3rd and 4th August.

PLUS

• Nindooinbah Woolshed Exhibition - September 1-2. I am one of about 11 artists invited to exhibit at this historical venue. Well known Brisbane Gallery Director Bruce Heiser will be opening the exhibition. Check out the flyer

AND, this great photo of me [below] with my dog, was taken recently by fabulous photographer Gillian von Niekerk from Vann Photography, for an article which will be appearing in the next Highlife Downs Living Magazine [Spring Edition] I will let everyone know when the article comes out!

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com