Image left: “Dark Matter” by Anne Marchand – Dark matter is a form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of its total energy density.
Image right: “Lagrange Point One” by Ken Girardini – In celestial mechanics, the Lagrange points are the points near two large bodies in orbit where a smaller object will maintain its position relative to the large orbiting bodies.
Dear Zenith Art Lovers,
Art and science are both about the truth and the human spirit, both encouraging us to explore beyond the known. A civilization that undermines, ignores, or demonizes art and science is doomed and will implode on itself.
As we all stay inside our homes in effort to curb the spread of the virus the planet is refreshing itself. Trees live without people; people cannot live without trees. Art has long been used by scientists to illustrate science, and artists historically have taken their inspiration from science. They are conjoined by the search for truth and understanding of the universe.
Lack of respect for both will only lead to the demise and eventual extinction of humans. In turn, the air, the oceans, and animals of all other forms will thrive. This is the harsh reality immediately facing us. The current pandemic is Mother Nature’s warning shot. If we do not heed her now, then heaven help us all.
Dr. Rebecca Klemm, the “Numbers Lady”
My many thanks to Dr. Rebecca Klemm for comments, quotes, and captions herein. Known as the “Numbers Lady,” Rebecca is founder of NumbersAlive! Foundation, which is dedicated to improving numerical literacy and encouraging creativity and global citizenship by visualizing world patterns through fun and friendly number characters.
By putting numbers into a real world contexts and looking at them through the lenses of art, history, science and culture Dr. Klemm moves math out of academic abstraction and into a vital, relevant, and meaningful part of everyday life.
With my highest power of recommendation I urge you to look at Dr. Klemm’s website. It will be the best thing you did for yourself and your kids today. NumbersAlive.org
Dr. Richard Binder is a medical oncologist who spent more than 40 years caring for patients, I have undergone a metamorphosis from caring to creating and have translated skills learned as an undergraduate in engineering school fabricating working manufacturing models from metals into creating abstract metal sculptures.
Satellites, by Richard Binder
Nancy Frankel uses, what she calls, “organic geometry” to give form to her love of nature and architecture. Space, either encapsulated or activated, and a sense of balance, precarious yet centered, are integral to her work.
Lunar Sculpture, by Nancy Frankel
Ken Girardini – Imagery and the illusion of space are his objectives in the creations of many of Ken Girardini’s photo-panel works. During the 1980s Ken served as NORAD Space Defense Analyst, and later on the Space Shuttle mission support team. His latest body of work, influenced from his time at NASA, centers around the subject of space exploration.
Science is the Doorway, by Ken Girardini
Anne Marchand’s work is inspired by images seen in the heavens and on earth. In her words: “Science with its technological advances has given mankind the ability to see what was previously unseen. With this new information, I am interested in finding patterns that occur in the macrocosm and in the microcosm, in space and in the space of our bodies. I am looking at intersections of science and religion that tell us that we are linked with the universe and each other, created from the same materials.”
Radiance of Convergence, oil on canvas by Anne Marchand
Dr. Katharine Owens began a career transition from psychologist to visual artist. It soon became clear to her that life lessons so often addressed in psychotherapy were the very same lessons working in the creation of her art; lessons about fear and self-doubt. She has often likened psychotherapy to looking at the jig saw puzzle pieces of a person’s life, rearranging the pieces in a different way, discarding others and creating new pieces, enabling a person to view their life in a new way.
Healing Hands, by Katharine Owens. “Suffering isn’t ennobling, recovery is.” Christiaan Barnard (South African neurosurgeon who performed the first heart transplant in 1967.
“On the Shoulders of Giants” by Gavin Sewell. Although mathematicians spent centuries attempting “Squaring the Circle,” the 1882 Lindemann-Weierstrass theorem proved it impossible and established Pi as transcendental.
