Omnibiotic Spontaneous Lifeform Generator



Detail of painting, click to enlarge

This painting began with a few standard questions:  

• What might a human being look like with radial symmetry instead of bilateral?  
• By what process do creatures become complex multi cellular organisms with multiple interacting organs?  
• Were our organs at one time separate and independent organisms?  
• How are animals like plants?  
• How is horizontal gene transfer possible in a single generation? 
• Is there a giant multi headed person at the center of the earth responsible for all biodiversity on the outer crust of our planet? 
• If so, what other worlds has this Omnibiotic Spontaneous Lifeform generator colonized? 

In order to find answers to these questions I took a trip to the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Gathering a host of pictures of the plants, bones and and creatures that interested me, I returned to my studio and played a slideshow of these images as I drew.

Some Specimens from the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan

 The paper I drew on was some leftover folded bristol, and as I drew it became equally interesting to integrate the folds into my design.

While this drawing wasn't exactly a roadmap for my painting, it provided the landmarks I hoped to see along the way and helped refine the questions I wanted to explore in the final piece.

To me there are two distinct ways to draw, and these are terms I am transposing from Science, the first is the Inductive Process -- contour line drawing, gradually moving your pencil along the outlines of a shape or idea, going bit by bit, inch by inch, improvising and guessing the way to go. The second is the Deductive Process -- Beginning from large generalized shapes, or vague theories and gradually refining those down to specific details. For this one I started with the inductive route, just setting down the final outline immediately and relying upon intuition to guide me.

 For imaginative work this approach allows my mind to relax so that I can free associate and indulge tangents without the baggage of reality to slow me down.

From there I hypocritcally discard my bohemian intuition, roll up my sleeves and switch to the old reliable deductive approach. I set down my first layer of dark red acrylic paint to figure out how I want the lighting and establish the volumes of the shapes. 

 Then came the layers of oil paint to refine colors and clarify the individual pieces of the creature and it's surroundings.

At this stage I get some input from my wife that "the background could use something" and I agree.



Painting in process



This gives me the opportunity to return to an inductive approach and freestyle some plants in the background. I'm still undecided if this added interest or simply cluttered up the composition. But I found the answers to my questions, and those answers were of course, more questions.

Here is the Final (?) piece. It looks like he found that missing ingredient to create the next lifeform.

 Omnibiotic Spontaneous Lifeform Generator,
Oil on Bristol 18" x 24"
click to view larger