Climb out of yourself

The Cambrian Explosion was a period of sudden and dramatic diversification in the modes and forms of life in the ocean. There are a lot of unanswered questions about what caused it, but the means of its perpetuation pretty clearly involve a reliance on modularity and reuse. Trilobite body segments, eyestalks, leg pairs, pincers, and antennae proliferated and recombined like interlocking lego sets, creating all manner of arthropods, worms, urchins, and other progenitors of the immense variety of anatomical forms that are currently in the process of disappearing. But that’s a separate topic.

The basics of the visual vocabulary I’m working with are very simple. A single closed loop, where the line has a limited tolerance for variance in curvature acuity, and where intersection proximity falls within a range that establishes a uniform density or tempo. From within these constraints, a variety of common patterns emerge — spirals, fans, splayed coils rotating around central cores, stalks and tendrils reaching to connect with or establish separate clusters. I feel like I’m just scratching the surface of my own personal cambrian explosion.

60”x48”
acrylic on canvas
available

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