South of Zenith, 2019

Various dimensions

acryl gouache, silver ink and graphite on linen

South of Zenith is a series of artworks representing the sound and geography of the night sky. They are inspired by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) research, the Very Large Array radio telescopes in New Mexico and NASA’s discovery of over 4,292 exoplanets (habitable planets beyond our solar system) as of October 19, 2020. No longer science fiction, astronomers are using telescopic data to find life in distant worlds. A new astronomical spectrograph, the Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF) at McDonald Observatory near my studio in Marfa, TX, detects planets capable of having liquid water. I believe that finding life in outer space affects the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, experience, ethics and aesthetics. When the “Other” is an alien form how do we describe experience? How does the mind and emotion relate to a totally new visual experience?