Advisors: Jason Paradis and Lorena Salcedo-Watson

THE IN-BETWEEN

            We think of the term “abstraction” to mean the opposite of representation. However, this exhibition considers the scientific meaning of the word, which is the process of taking facts grounded in representation and forming a theory. Scientific theories are built upon and provide a basis for new ones to be made with the knowledge that the first theory is true. Take Gravity for example. It is technically a theory, but Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity can only exist because we know Gravity is real. We build more and more theories off of an original one, so much so that it becomes fundamental to how we currently understand the structure of the universe. From my point of view, these theories are indefinitely stuck between representation and abstraction.

            THE IN-BETWEEN blurs these lines in both the artistic and scientific senses. This exhibition combines three different series of paintings that revolve around topics in astronomy, physics, music theory, and art while looking at how they intersect. The first series For the Record… is painted on thirty vinyl records and explores the dimensionality of circular forms. Some represent topics in astronomy and music, while others are meant to be more visually appealing. The second series Quantumplation depicts my interpretations of five different unproven theories in quantum physics and how they interact with art. The third and final project Rainbow Hole is a sequence of events in which the viewer conceptually falls deeper and deeper into a black hole.

Panoramic view of the inside of Gallery Unbound, including projects Rainbow Hole and For the Record…

Panoramic view of the hallway outside Gallery Unbound, including project Quantumplation

            My relationship with art is unconventional. I do not make art because I like it, I make art because it is the medium through which I express my passion for my subject matter: science. I dedicate my work to exploring abstraction in astronomy, physics, and music, using Euclidean geometry and circular forms.

            I discovered my identity as an artist with my project For the Record…, which is a body of work painted on thirty vinyl records, studying how the math of circles spans many fields. A large number of these pieces signify a connection to astronomy and music theory, aiming to demonstrate that these disciplines are interconnected. For example, I once did a study of note relationships in music. I discovered that, when configured in a circular form, the geometry of music is symmetrical.

            In another piece, I depict Pythagoras’s diagram of the Music of the Spheres: a school of thought centered around the idea that celestial bodies make music and that principles of harmonics are responsible for creating the micro and macro structures of the universe. I also depicted a different structure of musical geometry where I charted the ratio of a perfect octave, a perfect fifth, and a perfect fourth. They are represented with circles overlaid as two-thirds, one-half, one-third, and one-sixth of the diameter of the larger whole.

            Each record was conceptualized in a stream of consciousness. I attempt to challenge the conventional ways of painting with my substrates and by treating the paint as a device for multi-dimensional construction. I chose to work on vinyl records because of my subject matter. Since I was planning to work with Euclidean geometry, I was able to effectively express my concepts using the circular format. I also wanted the tangible connection to music; to capture it in solid form. The records make this body of work versatile in its installation. They can be hung from the wall or ceiling, organically or rigidly, condensed or separated, and can form various shapes that add to their overall experience.

For the Record…

For the Record…, 2023
Acrylic on vinyl records
This piece is painted on thirty vinyl records. I use Euclidean geometry to study and abstract the dimensionality and perception of circular forms in space. Many of these pieces signify a connection to astronomy and music theory and aim to demonstrate that these disciplines are intertwined.

            This project is special to me because I made it as a direct response to being diagnosed with autism. Though I have a background with realism in art and have refined my technical skills, the traditional academic ways of painting have always been uncomfortable to me, like nails on a chalkboard, and this body of work allowed me to discover how my mind works and become more accepting of it. This was the first time I did not try to force my brain to work in a way that it was not meant to.

            I realized that I had been unconsciously trying to conform to the established ways in which people learn, interact, and even how they make art. I decided to just let my mind work how it works and I found my form of creative expression. This project was a breakthrough for me and a major contribution to my process of self-discovery. It felt like I was finally rubbing my brain the right way and I suddenly loved the thought of being a painter.

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            For the Record… was an experimental body of work that allowed me to discover how I can convey what I am passionate about in my art, which are theoretical topics in physics and astronomy. I begin to portray this in my next project, Quantumplation. Specifically, I explore unproven theories in these fields. Originally, my inspiration came from the things I learned in my astronomy classes, but since I am unable to take college astronomy classes anymore, it mostly comes from reading journal articles and the occasional trip to see some astronomical phenomena. I make my own artistic interpretations of these theories and explore the visual possibilities on canvas with a combination of scientific research and artistic intuition.

            In Quantumplation, a series of five large paintings, I made artistic interpretations of five different unproven theories in quantum mechanics. This includes the axion particle, quantum harmonics, antimatter, string theory, and the theory of the multiverse. Each represents a quantum scape that is indefinitely stuck between representation and abstraction. I have made this grey area a focus in my artistic study. My art is not truly abstraction, as it represents real things in nature. However, since these things are theoretical, it is not truly representational; it is somewhere in-between.

Quantumplation

Magnetic, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 60 in
This piece is the first in my series of five paintings exploring different unproven theories in quantum physics. Magnetic represents my artistic interpretation of the axion, which is a hypothetical elementary particle, conceptualized to solve the Strong CP problem in quantum chromodynamics. It is also one of the theories on what dark matter could be made of.

            I find that it helps me to think when I paint my canvas a color that is not white. I do this before thinking about what I want to put on the canvas. I have my best ideas when I paint it black. The color white looks like a flat surface to me, but black and other dark colors look like a void that my mind can simply enter and explore the three-dimensional space within. I go into the void and construct my forms from the inside out.

            With this piece, Magnetic, I started by pinning it to the wall and painting it a dark blue. I then used a compass to figure out the placement and structure of the form. I drew the black circle in the middle and the pink circles surrounding it. To make the slightly bent dotted lines, I put push pins in the center of the black circle and the centers of each of the pink circles as leverage, pressed a metal ruler into their sides, and followed the line of the ruler. Because my metal ruler was thin, I was able to adjust the degree of bending to help me balance the negative space between lines.

Harmonic, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 60 in
This piece is the second in my series of five paintings exploring different unproven theories in quantum physics. Harmonic represents my artistic interpretation of quantum harmonics, acoustics, and frequency. It depicts eight different variations of fundamental harmonic, which is one of the ways sound waves behave in a pipe.

            Since my science research class in high school, I have been interested in quantum harmonics, which is the study of how music and the physics of acoustics and frequency have influenced the overall structure of the universe. Quantum harmonics states that, soon after the Big Bang, as the universe was expanding and its contents were mostly in the form of particles, everything was moving farther apart and the most activity happened in hotspots where clusters of sound waves were denser. It further states that this is where galaxies began to form. As someone who loves astronomy and music, learning about how music created the structure of the universe was mind-blowing and became a focus for me. 

            With Harmonic, the idea for this painting stemmed from topics in quantum harmonics, where I depict an artistic diagram of “fundamental harmonic”, which is one of the variations of sound wave shapes traveling through a pipe. Instead of graphing all of the variations, I decided to only focus on one of them from eight different points of view.

            I started by painting the canvas black and finding the horizontal center. I treated the canvas like a graph to calculate the amplitude, frequency, and wavelength of the sound wave. Then, I multiplied and reconfigured it, overlaying all of the waves. This painting was done entirely with a script liner paintbrush.

Electric, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 60 in
This piece is the third in my series of five paintings exploring different unproven theories in quantum physics. Electric represents my artistic interpretation of antimatter. A normal particle and its antiparticle counterpart cannot exist in space at the same time. One simply pops out of existence when the other pops in. However, recent studies indicate that it may be possible for certain types of quarks and their antiquark counterparts to coexist at the same time for a split second. I was imagining what that would look like when I made this painting.

            I enjoy experimenting with bold, inverted hues that clash nicely with each other, while complementary colors are a recurring feature in my work. For Electric, I painted a dark purple background and yellow lines coming out from the center. I added white to create the illusion that the blue circles were exploding outward from the yellow lines.

            In my astronomy classes, I was taught about antimatter and that it cannot exist in space at the same time as its real matter counterpart, so I was fascinated to learn that this may be possible in certain types of quarks. I made a painting of what I thought a quark and an antiquark coexisting in space for a split second would look like on a quantum level and the effect it would have on the inter-dimensional energy around it.

Symmetric, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 60 in
This piece is the fourth in my series of five paintings exploring different unproven theories in quantum physics. Symmetric represents my artistic interpretation of string theory. I remember an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon was trying to explain string theory to Penny. The graphs and illustrations on his board that accompanied his explanation inspired this painting.

            In Symmetric, I painted the canvas a blue mid-tone and used graphite to draw three acute triangles that fit together to format the spacing. Then, I drew sheets of non-parallel lines that resembled fishnets, representing strings. I painted white dots where the lines crossed. I intended to imply the “strings” in string theory by plotting the points where they intersected, making a new structure of data in itself. I adjusted the brightness of each dot to create depth and indicate that they were fading and receding further back into space. I also attempted to emphasize the shape of the negative space to signify the nothingness that exists between the fibers of the universe because it is even more important than the positive space.

Cosmic, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 60 in
This piece is the last in my series of five paintings exploring different unproven theories in quantum physics. Cosmic represents my artistic interpretation of the theory of the multiverse. I used my grandmother’s old paintbrush to flick stars and create multiple spheres of universes.

            In my collection of tools and brushes, I have a paintbrush that used to belong to my grandmother. It’s small, stiff, and very high-quality nylon, which I suppose is why it has lasted this long. I discovered that when I use this specific paintbrush to flick paint on a canvas, it makes any painting look like a photograph taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. I was so excited about it that I came up with the following concept behind Cosmic just so I could see what the brush could do.

            It represents a scape of multiple universes, both near and far away from the observer. I also painted little galaxy superclusters within each universe. This entire painting was created with that brush. The varnish on the brush has started to chip, but I will keep fixing it and taking care of it as best as I can until I can’t use it anymore because it was my grandmother’s and because I have yet to find another brush that works for my paintings quite like this one.

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            The project that was my main focus in this exhibition is Rainbow Hole. This is another series of five paintings, however it varies in size. In it, I explore a visual sequence of what it would be like to fall into a black hole, each scene falling deeper into the void. I experiment with texture, color, and distortion to achieve a sort of psychedelic experience.

            This past summer, NASA released a simulation that their new supercomputer generated from their calculations depicting an observer falling into a black hole and showing how its structure would distort due to gravitational effects. I saw this video and immediately needed to make a project about it. How would the human brain comprehend falling into a black hole? Would it even be able to?

            There is a saying that we see our entire life flash before our eyes when we die, but what would we see if we experienced the most profound and unfathomable death the universe has to offer us? Each abstracted scene in the sequence depicts a multi-textural, completely different subconscious experience, beginning at the top of the black hole and ending just before the viewer sees what lies at the center.

            This leaves what happens up to interpretation. I have given the information I learned about black holes from the perspective of an artist and the audience is free to draw their own conclusions. I will continue this study in a future project about what exists inside a black hole and draw my own conclusions.

Rainbow Hole

The Beginning, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
12 x 36 in

            A black hole is not really a hole, it is created by a center of mass so dense that it bends spacetime. To give some context to the sequence of events happening, The Beginning depicts a realistic view of a black hole with some abstract texture occurring in the background. I discovered that there was an incredible clash of style between the abstract background and the fine, clean-cut, detailed form of the subject, so I decided to keep this juxtaposition in the following scenes. From here, we begin our journey into the black hole.

Yellow Hole, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
20 x 40 in

            This first painting, Yellow Hole, is the smallest of the five abstract pieces, while the last piece, Black Hole, is the largest. I increase the canvas size exponentially. That is to say, the size change increases measurably with each piece. The second piece increases by four inches, the third by six inches, all the way to the last, which increases by a whole foot.

            As the first fully abstract painting in the sequence, Yellow Hole illustrates a scene where the observer is placed looking down into the black hole, about to go in. I used different sponges of various shapes and sizes to create the textures in the background and frog tape to make the sharp, clean-cut edges of the form.

Purple Hole, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 48 in

            Purple Hole is the second abstracted scene in the sequence, where the black hole encompasses the observer and begins to close above them. I used a mop brush with a thick layer of paint on one of the two canvases, then sandwiched them together to make an impression of the design on the other canvas so I could see the placement of colors and achieve a sort of symmetry.

Red Hole, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 60 in

            In Red Hole, the top of the black hole closes and the event horizon, which is described as the point of no return in a black hole, begins to distort and open up, marking the moment where it becomes impossible for the observer to escape. I used a hair-comb to make the texture. I noticed that the pattern the comb made looked like static, so I added layers and layers of different colors with the comb to create something that looked like a wall of sound.

            In studying black holes, astronomers calculate the gravitational force of the black hole and the effect it has on objects around it. All objects in the universe have a gravitational force. From masses as large as galaxy clusters to as small as subatomic particles, everything has a gravitational pull that acts on surrounding matter. Even living things have a center of gravity that acts on objects, the force is just so infinitesimally weak that it is insignificant to our perception of daily life.

            However, when you get to masses the size of moons and planets, the gravitational force becomes more noticeable. The stronger the gravitational pull, the faster objects need to travel to escape. This is called escape velocity. If you are trying to escape the pull of the moon, you won’t have much difficulty, but if you try to escape a neutron star, you would need to travel at around 150,000 km/s, which is roughly half the speed of light.

            What makes a black hole a black hole is that this object is so dense, has such a strong gravitational pull, and bends spacetime so much that no speed is fast enough to escape it, not even light, and nothing known travels faster than light. So, what defines the event horizon of a black hole is that it is the point at which light cannot escape.

Blue Hole, 2024
Acrylic and pouring medium on canvas
36 x 72 in

            The observer is consumed by the distancing event horizon as it moves farther and farther away from them, as illustrated in Blue Hole. I used a silicone comb brush and mixed a pouring medium into the paint to make the texture. Pouring medium dilutes the paint, but never decreases the intensity of the color, so I was able to layer vivid, translucent colors to create depth. I taped a piece of newsprint paper to my canvas, drew the curve of the line with an 8B pencil, flipped the paper onto the other canvas, traced over the line I made, then flipped the paper back onto the first canvas and traced over that line. By doing this, I transferred the graphite and made impressions of the lines to create symmetry.

            I saw a printed copy of Monet’s water lilies in the front of the painting studio and decided to use a similar color palette. When I looked at the completed painting, it felt like the sun setting over a vast lake. As an artist who has a specific focus, especially a focus on a topic that is difficult to relate to, I try to make my paintings aesthetically pleasing to look at in addition to being conceptually driven. This painting evokes feelings and captures the kind of beauty I strive to achieve in my work.

Black Hole, 2024
Acrylic and pouring medium on canvas
48 x 96 in

            This is the final scene of our journey into the black hole, fittingly titled Black Hole. To get as close to the blackest black as I could with the materials that I had, I mixed a large ratio of pouring medium into the paint, increasing its gloss and ultimately concentrating the reflections, making the surface around the reflections appear darker. As with Blue Hole, I drew the curves of the lines on newsprint paper and transferred the graphite onto both canvases.

            I combined three layers of texture to make a smooth appearance. I did the first layer of black paint with my hands and smeared it around the canvas. While it was drying, I scraped it with my hand to make a wood-like texture. For the second layer, I used a slightly stiff brush and a very soft and smooth brush for the third.

            As the canvas size increases, the observer is enveloped by the black hole and the sight of what lies at the center. However, I chose to end the project right before the black hole’s center is revealed because I would like to dedicate a future project to this topic. I need to think about how I am going to explore the singularity, which is a theoretical point of infinite density thought to be what lies at the center of a black hole.

Doorway view of the inside of Gallery Unbound, including projects Rainbow Hole and For the Record…

Corner view of the inside of Gallery Unbound, including projects Rainbow Hole and For the Record…

            Throughout this project, I show the evolving distortion of a black hole, which occurs as the gravitational pull increases and bends the light traveling to the observer’s eyes. As I stated earlier, a black hole bends spacetime by having an extremely dense center of mass. I investigate this by distorting the curvature of the structure of the black hole in my paintings, placing it around a perceived “center” within the negative space.

            Other massive objects such as galaxy clusters also bend spacetime. They are so dense that when light travels toward them, past them, and away from them, the light appears to follow the path of the gravitational field, acting almost like a lens. From the perspective of an outside observer, the light is curved instead of a straight line. However, to an observer within the galaxy cluster, the light would appear to travel in a straight line because of their relative position in spacetime. This is the foundation of the theory of relativity.

            In my paintings, the solid lines of color represent the light that has been trapped inside the black hole. The path that the light takes changes and bends with each piece as I travel from the perspective of an outside observer to an inside observer, showing the distorted alteration of relativity.

            Light behaves differently from the perspectives of different observers. Therefore, time behaves differently from the perspectives of different observers. Based on this, the light that follows the path of a gravitational field simply follows that of the curvature of the distortion of spacetime that a black hole creates and gets trapped outside the realm of the visible universe. My series aims to follow that light as its path shifts based on the relative point of the observer.

Greatest Hits, 2024
Acrylic on unstretched canvas
16 x 20 in

            As with all of my projects, I like to take time to conduct scientific research on the topics. It is important to me that I begin my work with a broad knowledge and understanding of the science behind my concepts because my paintings are more successful when I do so. 

            The realistic elements of Greatest Hits were done in an art class I took in high school. I did not enjoy art at all back then and this was the last thing I ever made before taking a very long break from it. Five years later, I decided to complete this painting with a newfound love of art and make it the poster for my exhibition. Showcasing elements from my other artwork, this piece illustrates the evolution of my style over the years, how my relationship with art has changed, and reflects the theme of this show: abstracting astronomy.

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            This is the direction I am taking my art. Reasoning with these existential questions and bringing out the beauty in them is a very powerful thing to me. It is what I want to do and who I want to be as an artist. I seek to understand the world around me. I see the elegance and the complexity in it all and I just want to make it make sense.

            As is the nature of astronomy, there is only so much to learn about it before it dives into the mysterious. In my studies, I realized that everything I had left to learn was unknown. Science could no longer give me that existential fulfillment of knowing exactly how the inner workings of the universe functioned on every level; knowing how it all began, what is out there, why we are here, and how it will end.

            I knew that this was something I had to discover for myself, so I turned to art. I will take this knowledge that I have of all the theories that pose these questions of how, what, and why and I will make my own answers. Doing so is the most fulfilling thing I can imagine. Despite it all, I am still unsure of whether I am a true artist or a scientist who chose to make art. Just as light behaves as a wave and a particle, maybe I can be both.

Installation

View of the hallway outside Gallery Unbound, including project Quantumplation

View of the hallway outside Gallery Unbound, including project Quantumplation

View of Greatest Hits, The Beginning, and project For the Record… 

View of Greatest Hits, The Beginning, and project For the Record…

View of Greatest Hits, The Beginning, and project For the Record…

View of Yellow Hole and Purple Hole

View of Red Hole, Blue Hole, and Black Hole

View of Red Hole and Blue Hole

View of Red Hole and Blue Hole

View of Black Hole

View of Exhibition Statement

View of Pricing Book

Installation of Magnetic

Installation of Harmonic

Installation of Electric

Installation of Symmetric

Installation of Cosmic

Installation of Greatest Hits

Installation of The Beginning

Installation of Yellow Hole

Installation of Purple Hole

Installation of Red Hole

Installation of Blue Hole

Installation of Black Hole