Telophase

'Telophase'
Another linking collection of oil paintings in the cellular growth group

Painting details below

New Growth

Anaphase 1.Anaphase 2a.

Anaphase 2

Anaphase 3

Anaphase Complete

Anaphase Seperated

Anaphase Detail

I will break these up with more posts over the next couple days-because there are so many paintings in this group. The idea is that they all(the individual paintings) fit together and create new formations, (larger paintings). Each painting is oil and most canvas's are 16" x 20". Each canvas was recylced and I left little windows or transparency's from the original paintings. When I completed these paintings I realized they looked like abstract life and represented new growth and development for me-as a painter, as a person. This motivated me to investigate cellular growth. Which shocked me, because there under the microscope were my paintings. I have never worked so "backwards" in the sense that I didn't know I was painting cellular growth until I found it after I was finished. It shocked me. It also encouraged me to trust in the guiding intuition and unconscious artistic process. One of the most interesting things about cell growth and terminology is that they call cells and chromotids , "Sisters, Mothers & Daughters" I feel there is a personal parallel with cellular growth and my personal and spiritual development.
"Mitosis is the process in which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus, into two identical sets in two daughter nuclei.^[1] It is generally followed immediately by cytokinesis, which divides the nuclei, cytoplasm, organelles and cell membrane into two daughter cells containing roughly equal shares of these cellular components. Mitosis and cytokinesis together define the mitotic (M) phase of the cell cycle - the division of the mother cell into two daughter cells, genetically identical to each other and to their parent cell."

On another note-I saw Tree of Life last night, I feel like I am a part of that movie, I am certainly on a similar quest of acceptance and understanding during this time. That is a movie you must see.
Lastly, I incorrectly said in my last post I saw Sol Lewitt Charcoal drawings at the Met. NOPE, it was Richard Serra!!! Oops!

Daughter Cells

Mother Cells

Mother Daughter Cells

New Connections

Connection 2
28" x 36"
Charcoal, Crayon, Acrylic, Photograph

Connection 1.
28" x 36"
Charcoal, Acrylic, Crayon

Inter Connected
32" x 40"
Charcoal, Crayon, Water Color, Photograph

Detail

Detail

First One
32" x 40"
Charcoal, Crayon, Photographs, Silk

I am drawing. I have had a desire to draw ever since seeing the Sol Lewitt drawings at the Met last month. He drew large abstract black charcoal drawings. I have not drawn with charcoal since high school and there is something about charcoal that makes me cringe like chalk on the chalkboard. But seeing these massive black drawings just impressed the desire to handle charcoal again. Charcoal retains the original gesture and leaves beautiful ghost marks.
I am drawing 'Connection' and 'Creation'.
I have been thinking so much about connection and the endless cycle of life and changing or evolving forms of life. We are so stuck on understanding life by what we ordinarily see to the naked eye. We base beliefs around simple ideas based on a sliver of what we know to be true. Today I was imagining a dress that went through a wide field with many openings for peoples heads, so many of us could wear this snaking dress-and we would be all connected (visually)....and then I thought do we need these visual symbols to understand that we are already all connected and touching all the time through all the tiniest molecules and atoms. Truly we are not separated from any living thing, when you realize this you also realize that we are not individual life-but really all of existence is one organism in a constant state of change. We use time to measure change, but time is not real-it is a concept...what is real is that life is constant, and death is not an end it is a point of change. I was reading about cellular growth because my last group of paintings (which I still need to post in their final state) made me think of New Growth in my personal development but they also visually looked like micro-life. After reading about the cellular growth I decided to read about what happens to cells when you die. The very interesting thing is that scientists don't know exactly when you actually die ( a great article about this http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1842627,00.html ), because what happens is a series of events in your body and your cells start changing, and start decomposing, but where is your consciousness? Death is not the end of life, but rather the end of what we saw before the moment of death. I also recently watched a TED talk about quantum physics and connections. A scientist Aaron O'connell created the first object visible to the eye that is literally in two places at once. This video has been rolling around in my thoughts-especially what he said at the end of his presentation; "Your connections to everything that is around you, literally define you." http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_o_connell_making_sense_of_a_visible_quantum_object.html

PS. My studio window boxes are off the hook!!!!