“Electrocardiogram” is 4’x3’ painting based on the skull as a symbol of life. The structure of bone is built on a hexagonal crystalline apatite structure. And the hexagonal or carbon ring you can see at the center of “Infinite Metamorphosis.” The hexagon is a fundamental shape of life’s chemistry. The fall leaves are the transition points and of course the swallowtails, metamorphoses.
Comparatively, the painting did not take long, unlike some others I’ve done with a lot more layers – and definitely contrasts with another photorealistic work I have going now called “All Souls.” This one was spontaneous and World Heart Day motivated me to complete it mostly the same day.
The painting celebrates the marvelous technology of the human body, and in particular that the waveform of each person’s heart is unique. And the electrocardiogram or signature ID is one of the latest biometrics, that can even be identified at a distance by “laser vibrometry.”
Other pop elements include Hamlet and the use of numbers and letters. Well, here the alternative to “to be” is “to exist,” expressing fundamental aliveness, evident on closer examination of everyday life and nature.
There was a wonderful art and science “meta” moment during painting: I noticed the fractal ‘tree of life’ pattern branching out in the paint, both in the paint tube and on the back of the heart cutout stamp. I had to photograph that of course, so that turned into the mirrored photo below.
‘Self-similarity’ or ‘self-replication’ can occur in fluid dynamics, varying with pressure, temperature, viscosity, velocity. Another word for this is “morphogenesis” — how physics and chemistry affect the shapes of movement, development or evolution, and propagation or reproduction.
The paint exhibits the emergence of a fractal branching pattern, from pressure and flow against a boundary. And blood through the arteries is another example of [both laminar & turbulent] flow! Thanks, nature, for continuing to reveal the unseen in the seen.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
“Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.”
― Benoît Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry Of Nature, 1982
The undercurrent of these patterns, could be electromagnetic induction lines, whereby “a current can be induced to flow due to a changing magnetic field” or “induction of an electromotive force in a circuit by varying the magnetic flux linked with the circuit.”
“Interfacial instabilities are prevalent in nature and often lead to captivating patterns1. Snowflakes are familiar examples, which form when the rate of ice formation is limited by heat diffusion2,3. Similar “dendritic” patterns commonly arise in solidification4,5,6,7, as well as electrodeposition of metals… there are situations where interfacial instabilities may be beneficial, e.g. in enhancing CO2 mixing in saline aquifers for carbon sequestration15, increasing mixing efficiency in microfluidics16, or patterning soft materials.” — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11939-7
Soft materials brings to mind the heart, the brain. But then dendritic — also Lightning. Lightning branches towards the ground or from negative to positive nodes – electrons to protons – in order to decrease resistance and maximize flow using possible paths towards the destination.
Electromagnetism is a means of transfer or travel — electromagnetic waves are transverse waves that can pass through matter, carrying energy or information. An electromagnetic wave begins when an electrically charged particle vibrates.
In the case of the paint, the electromotive force is me. And given what is known of electromagnetism, it’s impossible for the human body to *not produce an electromagnetic field of some kind. We do emit light, such as infrared, and “studies have identified infrared as a primitive source of ‘cellular vision’ to guide migration and other behaviors.” I don’t find this surprising because I know the body is intelligent, but it still find this absolutely astounding and amazing.
The heart is an electromagnetic conductor, something that directs. “Pump” seems an inadequate descriptor. So returning to “Electrocardiogram,” the output waveform or diagram, an expression of rhythm and sound, looks like a diagram of electromotive force. In Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, it is said that the heart produces parallel field lines, and this circles back once again to the concept of laminar flow.
“Cells and intracellular elements are capable of vibrating in a dynamic manner with complex harmonics, the frequency of which can now be measured and analyzed in a quantitative manner by Fourier analysis.” — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4654783/
There’s so much to delve into here, considering the body as an open system, with the art as jumping off point or catalyst. To be continued.