A Pictorial Essay:
- Elta Wilson
- May 13
- 8 min read
Updated: May 18
A Nexus of Art, Science & Ethics of the Universe
Cosmic Mother with Background Radiation
(Where are we from?)
[Jesus speaking]:
"And now Father, glorify me with your very own splendor, the very splendor I had in your presence before there was a world."
John 17, The Message: the New Testament in Contemporary Language as translated by Eugene H. Peterson.
Cosmic Mother with Background Radiation incorporates the Hubble Telescope’s data “photograph” of background radiation left over from the Big Bang—the initial explosion of energy that we believe created the cosmos. The radiation is posed as the womb of the Cosmic Mother, a universal mother image of the Creator, here painted in blues and purples. Artists have painted images of such mother figures for thousands of years such as Venus and Isis.
When Michaelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he drew his image of God resting within a perfect diagram of the human brain. In part it is how we know Michaelangelo dissected human bodies. In Cosmic Mother below, she too sits in a brain-like shell, but here it pours forth stars of the Milky Way into a chalice sitting on a golden alter. The flowers imitate orchids as if they are splendid angels found in our daily lives.
Black Hole II : Where are we going?
or
We Will All Become One—Whether We Like it Or Not.
"All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other."
2 Corinthians 5:10-20, The Message: the New Testament in Contemporary Language as translated by Eugene H. Peterson.
As we step back from the immediacy of our life here on earth and the crush of what we perceive as time, we know to a scientific certainty that at some point all of us—all our energy and every atom that makes us-- will be compressed together as one. Sadly, this will happen whether we like it or not. We are as primitive in our thinking as our early ancestors. How do we teach others that our fate is collective? How do we realistically reach out to them? We are called to settle our relationships with each other.
Christ Melds into Eagle Nebula
[Jesus speaking]
“Father, I want those you gave me To be with me, right where I am,
So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me,
Having loved me long before there ever was a world.”
John 17:20-26, The Message: the New Testament in Contemporary Language as translated by Eugene H. Peterson.
We teach about the resurrection, but is the scientific truth literally staring us in the face? Jesus tells us that he was with us long before there ever was a world, (John 17) and that his light came from out of the darkness. Scientifically, we know that we come from star dust, and we shall return to star dust. Is our return to the cosmos the true resurrection? If so, is the cosmos alive? Is the cosmos a sentient being made of energy that feels and understands our consciousness?
Cosmic Mother in Pleiades
Mother whispers in every soul.
This paraphrases the Quran (Koran), generally from Chapter 20, verse 103, although other verses
reference a symbolic Universal Mother and a sense of life whispering to the soul.
My image of the Cosmic Mother began with many variations. This exhibit contains 2 of my initial efforts. Both attempts were of a female figure but later became a combined image of both male and female. I have tried to develop this image without race with colors sometimes ranging from stark white to stark black to blue to purple. Ultimately, I found the demanding face appearing in my large mural, Age of Discernment included in this exhibit.
The flowers are similar to orchids, again like little angels we find here on earth. Blessings to my parents. They raised orchids and taught me to love them. The glowing stars are the Pleiades, a group of stars mentioned in prayers still today by the Episcopalians.
Black Madonna
Seek the Creator who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into morning and darkens the day into night.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me turn to night," Darkness is not dark to you, O Lord;
The night is as bright as the day;
Darkness and light to you are both alike.
Evening Prayer, Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, Rite Two.
As the night sky awakens, the face of Black Madonna peers down at earth from the Pleiades, kind and loving.
The stars of the Pleiades are represented here by the silver/pearl white glowing spots placed around the work. In the Episcopal Evening Prayer the Pleiades is recognized and shown respect as I do here. Today we know the Pleiades as part of the Orion belt and actually are those stars in the belt among millions that we can see with our naked eye. The first rule is to know what you do not know.
Eve Picnics Under the Butterfly Nebula
We know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God made, not handmade—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again.
2 Corinthians 5:1-4, The Message: the New Testament in Contemporary Language as translated by Eugene H. Peterson.
Eve sits here staring out at us, representing our collective consciousness as the winds of space, time and change sweep her up like a folded tent into the Butterfly Nebula. And yes, the Butterfly Nebula actually exists. We may all picnic among its stars someday.
For Eve I must give thanks for inspiration to Edouard Manet. A likeness of her appeared in a painting he presented in Paris 1863 where she sat naked having Lunch on the Grass in front of 2 men dressed in suits – scandalous!! Here, I try to capture some of his scandal with a smug twinkle as she becomes part of a larger universe.
Follow the Light I: Milky Way and Colorado River
As we live out our time here on earth, we can learn from the land and feel our true place on this earth. We are efemeral. The land knows where we are, the short time we have, what we are made of, and how we fit into the Universe. The light of the land beckons us.
"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us."
Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles” (Often misattributed to Nelson Mandela.)
"Jesus said, “I am the world’s light; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12, at p 204, The Message: the New Testament in Contemporary Language as translated by Eugene H. Peterson.
"Jesus said, “…If you walk in darkness, you don’t know where you’re going. As you have the light, believe in the light. Then the light will be within you, and shining through your lives. You'll be the children of light."
John 12 at p 216, The Message: the New Testament in Contemporary Language as translated by Eugene H. Peterson, Nav Press, 1993.
Follow the Light II: Mesa Verde
Mesa Verde, found at Mesa Verde National Park, holds one of the great Native American ancient dwellings in our country. Here their homes were carved into the rock of this sacred mountain and show how interconnected their lives were with the earth. Life in our cities has lost much of this understanding.
Milky Way Over Portland
The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different. You will notice that the variety of bodies is stunning. Just as there are different kinds of seeds, there are different kinds of bodies—humans, animals, birds, fish—each unprecedented in its form. You get a hint at the diversity of resurrection glory by looking at the diversity of bodies not only on Earth but in the skies---sun, moon, and stars.
I Corinthians 15: 34-39, The Message: the New Testament in Contemporary Language
as translated by Eugene H. Peterson. (To my friends in Portland. Elta)
Portland respects diversity. Keep Portland weird!
Medusa Redeemed
It is who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That is the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship.
John 4, The Message: the New Testament in Contemporary Language as translated by Eugene H. Peterson.
In humble self-indulgence, I offer my one autobiographical work. From my perspective the green triangle represents both intelligence and the drive for money. The flowers are the gift of time and growth. The snake reminds me that like the scorpion, my nature is my nature, and it will always be with me. Yet I am willing to stand in my truth and be honest with myself, others and my Creator.
Age of Discernment
. . . Everything in creation is being held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it is withib us.
Romans 8, The Message: the New Testament in Contemporary Language as translated by Eugene H. Peterson.
This mural reflects my belief that step one is to know what you don’t know. If you choose to hold faith, you are not alone. But the pretense that you literally know the answers to life’s mysteries devalues the need for Discernment, a true act of self-discipline. It is difficult to patiently await knowledge without our needs demanding answers that we do not yet have.
As the scientific revolution spews data about the cosmos, we are pressed to reconcile this new knowledge with our prior understanding of biblical scripture and the fundamental meaning of life. As part of our discernment, we ask, “Who are we? Where are we? Where are we going? What is our purpose? What is time? What is our true size?” And on, and on . . . .
Here Adam and Eve are small and almost unnoticeable. They are not the usual center stage images of Western art but are instead overwhelmed by the Milky Way.
Hopefully, the loving sensitivity of Christianity and its charge to love one another are kindly reflected as similar to the call of Buddha to Enlightenment. The bridge spans between our life on earth and the cosmic creation.
What is the meaning of time? Early cave paintings are juxtaposed against our modern city of Portland. We may think the 35,000 years between them is a long time, but the cosmos tells us it is but a blink.
Where are we? “On the earth,” you say! But our earth is so small it is hard to find among the 100-400 billion stars of the Milky Way, and it is just one of billions of galaxies.
Where are we going? What is our purpose? In truth, no one knows. And so we enter the great Age of Discernment.
Comments