Cutting-edge technology and scientific discoveries influence an Oklahoma City artist who creates artwork with a component of controlled chaos.
Sarah Hearn's "Connecting Constellations of an Intangible Universe," on display at the North Gallery of the state Capitol, connects science and art to represent the natural relationship between science and photography.
Hearn said her artwork "comments on our societal need for the collection of empirical data and the scientific obsession with fitting things into neat classification systems or categorical descriptions "? something inherently repressive. Nature resists classification. We are constantly revising the sets of rules science creates for itself. My work cross-pollinates the various fields of scientific study for this reason."
"Genetic Traits of Time: JJ" is part of a four-piece series. With the series, Hearn said she created "a visual example of possible phenotypes among the offspring of two 'species,' time and space."
She began by drawing "what I think space might look like if it were to be a living biological organism," she said. "I did the same for time."
Hearn said she then used a traditional genetic diagram "? the Punnett square "? to determine what their offspring might look like.
She said "Small Collection of Antique Matter" deals with both the microcosm and the macrocosm and is named after the illumination stars have at the end of their long life cycle.
"It represents the tiny, individual matter that makes up each star and each living thing and the larger collections of matter," she said. "A dying star often illuminates clouds of glowing gas and become hotter and hotter before exploding."
Hearn's work is on display through Jan. 11, 2009, at the state Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Admission is free. For more information, call 521-2931.
"?Natalie Burkey
