Imagined Nebula (Great Woman of Shunem)

Original Painting
Masonry, Acrylic and Polyurethane Gloss on Canvas
60 x 60 cm
2021

This work has the vague shape of the female reproductive system. Representing delights, creation and Mother Nature. Nebulae are where stars are conceived and nurtured or show shadows of stars long supernova’d. Women too hold that power - recognised, figuratively, used or not.

This piece didn’t quite make it into my solo exhibition ‘The Edge Of Forever’ but had a similar line of inspiration as ‘Blessed are the Barren’ which was inspired by a variety of images that were sent to the Moon and back as radio waves via a radio telescope sender and receiver. The Moon is used as a giant reflector. It’s actually a very physical process. The radio waves carry the information of the images travelling approximately 768,000Km, touch the surface of the Moon, penetrating as deep as 3 metres, heating its entire surface, and then are reflected back to Earth. The act of moon bouncing creates distortion in the image, and the resulting glitches are an evocative sign of the long, treacherous journey to the Moon and back. The particular image sent is from an ultrasound scan of my ovary/womb. The work derives from links between the lunar cycle and menstrual cycle and how the moon is connected to feminine energy. This piece combines the very inner technology of ultra sound to the very outer technology of the radio telescope. Both of with render very similar resolutions of images. The original image has echoes of the lunar surface itself again strengthening the connection between the cycles.

The Imagined Nebula series demonstrates the inability to accurately describe the vastness of something, which is so difficult to even perceive never mind portray or understand, especially when we are such a fundamental part of those systems.

“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” Carl Sagan

Creating the objects within the paintings using different textures so they have no definitive edge that can be perfectly measured showing that however much we think we know or how ever close to those all important answers, we’re always just that invisible line away. Questioning if we can ever be fully objective to such a subjective thing?

“Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” Carl Sagan

The work also touches on the Macro and Micro aspects of the universe that these huge clouds of gas and dust are made of the same elements that make up us and everything around us and even the geometric structures of these elements can be found in both huge unfathomable colossal bodies as well as the tiniest microscopic particles and forces that hold everything together. And who is to say these Nebula don’t exist somewhere in the infinite expanse of the universe.

Shipping to Europe, USA and else where is available. Please email [email protected] to arrange.