Is the Big Bang God?

The “Is the Big Bang God?” series uses biological stains from my own lab (used to highlight microscopic structures in histology and pathology samples) and Black 3.0 (the blackest paint on the planet) to make works that express the wonder of the universe and its creation. The dyes include phenol red, xylene cyanol and malachite green, the last of these was used by Dan to develop chromophore assisted light inactivation used to understand how proteins function in cells.

A prior project, Micrographia, explored the chemical properties of these stains and their outstanding colors and used them to make art about cellular structures. The colors are used abstractly in this series and the works are inspired by images from the Hubble and James Webb Sky Telescopes. The hand-drawn geometric structures made with dots of Black 3.0 applied with a micropipette suggest the gravitational curves in space-time as discovered by Einstein. The latest works use the same artistic approach but conceptualize two world religions, becoming more representational with use of the same colors and grids. They bring us back to the wonder and awe of contemplating creation and how we imagine our higher power. These works were part of solo shows in Glasgow and Duke University in 2023.

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Crucifixion # 5

Glasgow Crucifixion