A while ago my friend Steve suggested that I try to paint something that was big and small – something that incorporated those two ideas simultaneously.  I have no idea where that idea came from or why he had it, but I figured I’d give it a shot.

River Leaf Nebula, 2013, 48 x 48 inches, acrylic and water on canvas

I do think it is interesting how nature can have the sort of symmetry where very big and very small things can end up looking similar: neurons in the brain vs. star clusters in the universe, etc.  This is a actually a phenomenon very well studied in chaos theory, as I’ve recently been reading.  Check out “Chaos” by James Gleick if you’re interested.

I’m marginally happy with how it turned out.  It was a cool idea that my friend had and I’m glad I got to play with it.