Origins : Complexity Rising

A new painting from an earlier study.

We tend to think of evolution as a biological process of rising complexity that began with single-celled organisms here on earth, but the universe has been undergoing a cosmic evolution of growing complexity from the very beginning.

Before there could be cells, there needed to be complex molecules and an array of elements to make them. The earliest known events of the universe generated only a few of the lightest elements: hydrogen, helium, and trace amounts of lithium. Until the first stars formed and began fusing protons and neutrons into larger nuclei the universe was devoid of heavier elements, including the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen of which we are made. Other processes took these elements and bonded them into basic amino acids and other molecular building blocks of life as we know it.

Biological evolution on our planet is thought to be nearly as old as the Earth, but the complexity that made it possible has been accumulating since time began.

18 x 24 inches, Oil on Panel

In this painting, the thread of gas and dust that grows from the left and reaches a crescendo at the right represents the growth of complexity through time. Also featured is a developing galaxy, early massive hot blue stars fusing higher elements, a supernova explosion spreading higher elements into space, a new star and protoplanetary disk enriched with elements, and a newly formed earth-like planet in the bottom right. The figure, an allegory of rising complexity, wears a necklace featuring a carbon atom and her hairpiece is a model of a basic amino acid that has been found abundantly in outer space. These are the building blocks of life ready for biological evolution to begin!

Night Migration, Study

In our night sky there is a dark band than runs through the Milky Way, known as the Great Rift. This darkness is where the stars of our galaxy are obscured by vast clouds of interstellar geese and dust.

For many thousands of years, at least, our ancestors looked at the random distribution of stars in the night sky and saw things that were familiar to them. The constellations were an enjoyable, meaningful, and useful way to see the sky. Many of them likely believed the things they saw in the stars were literally there in the sky, for they knew no better explanation of reality. Now we do have better explanations, we know what the stars are and that there are no literal animals or people in the constellations they make, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the whimsy and poetry in their patterns.

Available Sunday morning (8/20/23) on Every Day Original

6 x 8 inches, Detailed Oil Study

Ephemeral Complexity

A new tiny painting available on Every Day Original tomorrow morning, 5/20/23.

"How in the world did something as organized as a human being ever come to be? ... Think of mixing cream into coffee ... At the beginning, the system is low-entropy. There are relatively few ways to rearrange the atoms in the cream and coffee without changing its macroscopic appearance ... At the end, everything is mixed together and the entropy is relatively high ... It's the intermediate stage, in between low entropy and high entropy, where things look complex. Tendrils of cream reach into the coffee in intricate and beautiful ways ... Those swirls in the cream mixing into the coffee? That's us. Ephemeral patterns of complexity, riding a wave of increasing entropy from simple beginnings to a simple end."
- Sean Carroll, The Big Picture

This is a beautiful analogy of the universe as it transitions from its low-entropy, Big Bang beginning, to its distant future, high-entropy diffusion of particles. Life is possible in the interim because there is free energy available that allows complex molecules to form and interact in near infinite ways. Given enough time and variety of conditions these molecules can become self replicating and as Charles Darwin put it, "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

Oil on Panel, 7x7 in

Moondance

A new painting, now on display in Abend Gallery's current exhibit: Contours of Nature

“In a way, it’s really science that’s been inspiring rituals all along. Beneath the specifics of all our beliefs, sacred texts, origin stories, and dogmas, we humans have been celebrating the same two things since the dawn of time: astronomy and biology. The changing of the seasons, the long summer days, the harvest, the endless winter nights, and the blossoming spring are all by-products of how the Earth orbits the sun. The phases of the moon, which have dictated the timing of rituals since the dawn of civilization, are the result of how the moon orbits us. Birth, puberty, reproduction, and death are the biological processes of being human. Throughout the history of our species, these have been the miracles, for lack of a better word, that have given us meaning. They are the real, tangible events upon which countless celebrations have been built, mirroring one another even among societies who had no contact.”

- Sasha Sagan, For Small Creature Such as We

40 x 40 in, Oil on Cradled Panel

Nullius In Verba, Timelapse Video

A new timelapse video of Nullius In Verba is now free to watch on the website!

This video has been available on my Patreon, but I'm now releasing it to the wider public with added vocal narration about the Cosmic Perspective series. So give it a shot with the sound on and let me know what you think!

About Nullius In Verba:
Latin for "Take nobody's word for it", Nullius in Verba is the motto of the world's oldest national scientific institution, the UK's Royal Society, founded in 1660. The motto was adopted to signify the fellows' determination to establish facts by experiment. They recognized that we cannot accept assumptions or stories from authority, no matter how charismatic. If we want to understand nature, we must observe nature. It has taken centuries to get as far as we have, but this simple idea has allowed humanity to rein in superstition, famine, and disease. It has taken us from horseback to the moon and back. We still face formidable challenges, to be sure, and those challenges make it easy to take for granted just how far we've come. We now communicate at the speed of light, traverse the earth through the sky like birds, and produce more food than we need - even if economic forces keep that food from reaching everyone equitably.

Scientists do get things wrong from time to time and solutions sometimes have unintended consequences, but collective scientific scrutiny of claims leads to a steady correction of errors in our understanding. Science is not perfect, but it is the best method of knowledge discovery we have, and that's worth celebrating.


Original Sold
Prints available

Oil, 24 x 18 inches

Great Mystery

A new tiny painting coming to Every Day Original tomorrow morning!

"People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live. What I mean is we never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born."
- Albert Einstein

Oil, 8 x 6 in