Process of Atoms
© 1998 Ruary Allan
30" diameter
acrylic on canvas

The living image of the world as spirit, the anima mundi, is having a cultural revival. The scientific, materialist world view (dead atoms and vivisection) has passed beyond its useful life. We are invited to co-participate in the evolutionary process. Science needs to evolve, too. It's the nature of things.

Forming a "tree of life" crowned by the cosmic brain, solar lava spills from a chromosome-bearing lotus. The fire crystallizes and the cool, green Earth gives forth life. I'm alluding to our sense that the arising of life and conscious beings is inexorably intertwined with the existence of the universe. By experiencing the universe we create it. The whole image defines the face of a bee (Be) presenting the cosmos to us through its eyes. The scene is recapitulated in the eyes of the individual bee near the middle of the painting. The title of this painting is a little tongue-in-cheek, playing with the old axiom that lifeless matter accidentally produces all the infinite complexity of life we see around us. Endless realms of mystery remain outside our conceptual campsites.

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